What Comes After
by Huntress1987
Summary: My take on a post-finale story. It'll be long, so bear with me:)
1. Chapter 1

"No. But I'd hoped."

There it was. _Hope_. A four-letter word that held a lot of meaning to Will at the moment. Will _hoped _that Frankie would think about their conversation from yesterday and think to show up here today. He _hoped_ that with how relaxed Frankie had been the other night at his place and how she seemed to be asking questions about fate meant that maybe she was finally ready to open up and take a step forward with him. It'd been building for a while, but after she'd opened up with Kelly she'd been a little bit different. Will liked tough Frankie. He liked snarky Frankie and he liked funny Frankie. He even liked Frankie on her worst days. She was his partner now, his family whether she liked it or not. But he really found recently that he liked happy Frankie the most. When he got a true smile out of her, the kind that crinkled her eyes and could melt anyone's heart in under a second, he knew there was nothing better. She smirked often, grinned often, and laughed often enough. But a truly happy Frankie Trowbridge with a huge relaxed smile was a less frequent occurrence. And he loved it whenever he was the one to make her do it. He _hoped_ just maybe, what she said before about not taking the risk, wasn't necessarily true anymore. He was a firm believer in risking it all for love. Not the world, he couldn't put saving the world at risk. But he believed they could risk their hearts and that they were both professional enough to still do their jobs while working out whatever it is that's between them.

Frankie wasn't sure what Will had been hoping for, but she certainly didn't mind the direction that this was heading. Terrified yes, but maybe it was time to start believing in hope and in her feelings. She still didn't know if she believed in fate, but she did believe that she and Will at many times were on the same wavelength despite all of their differences. He knew her better than almost anyone had in years. Normally that would bother her. Normally she'd run the other direction. But here they were, out on this lookout spot with Will inching closer to her. It was the most relaxed she'd ever felt with him, and if she was honest with herself she'd been feeling that way for a couple of weeks now. She'd wanted to deny everything Susan had said, but she couldn't. She needed to know for herself if they could really start something, and Will seemed to be stepping it up. She would let him, it wasn't going to be her this time.

Will again seemed to know what she was thinking, knew that if this was going to happen it had to be him. So he stopped worrying about hope and fate, and scooted the final inch closer, watching her eyes intently for any sign that she didn't want him to do this, but he knew better. She didn't look away with hesitance, she didn't even look scared even though he could almost feel her body humming next to his with nervous energy. Frankie looked directly in his eyes and he was pretty sure he was gone now. He just needed to tilt his head. So he did.  
He was soft about it, not hesitant but not demanding.

Their eyes closed and Frankie immediately let go and let her lips meld with his gently. She'd been a bit more forceful the last time when she'd needed to sell it. But now she could take her time and ease into it. Will's arms came up and he placed them around her waist, holding on gently as Frankie wrapped one arm around him and brought the other hand up to the back of his neck. Will deepened the kiss and they were both lost in it.

As he brought his hand to her cheek and was preparing to come up for air briefly however, his well-tuned spy senses noticed something behind her in the distance. Frankie noticed Will pause and assumed he had decided to end the kiss there. They were sort of in public after all. But opening her eyes she noticed this wasn't Will deciding to take things elsewhere, this was Will tense. He gave her a look and grabbed her arm as the three men he'd seen took out their weapons.

"Down!" He shouted. She listened as they dodged the shots. The few people there hurried off the bridge. Will & Frankie easily jumped into fight mode and as the guys were now on top of them they fought back to back.

Clearly, the hired guns were better with their pieces then they were with hand to hand, as it only took a few moments for all three men to be out in the ground. Frankie and Will left the bridge quickly. They took a moment to catch their breath at a quiet side street.

"Seriously!" Frankie grumbled.

"I know, way to mess that all up huh" Will commented.

Frankie rolled her eyes. "Focus. Safe to assume our friend Ollerman had a backup plan in place for his guys to kill us if he died? Because who else would want to kill us right now? I mean more than usual."

"Well normally, lots of people." will shot her a half smile. "I need to call the team."

Frankie nodded. Typical, her and Will finally had a moment and it got interrupted again. She sighed heavily.

Will took out his phone and noticed a missed call. _Great, that was probably a warning. _But his throat tightened as he noticed it was a voicemail from Standish, and so he listened to him go on about Tina killing Emma. Which was awful to hear and certainly made his heart clench. But Tina was gone now and Alex had still orchestrated it. No, the worst part was hearing Standish's voice cut off, making out the sounds of grunting and a voice talking in the background. Not just any voice either.

Frankie looked to Will as his face darkened, much like it had when he'd gotten the call from Ollerman back at his apartment to come to the dead drop. But now, his face was much grimmer.

"What?" she asked.

Will shook his head. He started walking briskly back in the direction of the hotel.  
"We gotta go home...Standish.." he started.

"Standish what?" Frankie asked, and went from slightly worried to really worried, despite her well schooled poker face. _That kid better be okay._

"Alex is alive. He's got..." Will took a breath. "He's got Standish I think."

Frankie's fell even further. Anger didn't even describe it. She sped up to match Will's step.  
It figured, the moment things finally seemed to go right for her and Will, that darkness had to creep right back in.


	2. Chapter 2

Less than an hour later, after making it back to their respective hotel rooms and grabbing their bags, Frankie and Will had hailed a cab and were at the airport waiting for the jet Ray had managed to get for them. Frankie had barely spoken on the ride there and Will for once didn't let it bother him. Both were too worried at the moment to even discuss anything, much less what had occurred between them an hour before.

"Hey!" Susan yelled at them as she and Ray made their way into the waiting area. She gave Will a quick hug and then squeezed Frankie's shoulder. "Sorry it took so long, we had to get them to release him" She nodded at Ray "before they'd let us leave."

"Yeah...and they wouldn't let me leave in my robe, so that took a while." Ray said innocently, not thinking too much about it.

Frankie gave him a look and rolled her eyes, Susan just smiled and shook her head.

"Yeah Ray, that's uh...good for all of us." Will said.

"Right. Yeah. Anyways, I got a team on the ground in New York and they're going to do a thorough search while we're in the air." Ray told them. He'd switched to serious mode as quickly as he had when Ollerman injected him with that nano tech.

Frankie sighed loudly.

"What?" Susan asked.

"You think if he took Standish he'd take him somewhere they could find him? He's not going to make it that easy."

"Hey, we don't know anything yet okay, let's try and stay..." Will started.

"If you say positive right now, I'll hit you."

Will raised his hands in defeat. A moment later, Frankie mumbled an apology under her breath as the plane arrived and they made their way outside. Will gave her a small smile as he walked past.

"Jai is tracking Standish's phone now. It's turned off, or more than likely destroyed, but he is going to try and narrow down the location of the last place he was when he called you." Frankie told them as they headed up the steps into the plane.

"Good. We'll find him, Frankie." Susan reassured her.

"Yeah. And this time I'm putting a bullet between Ollerman's eyes before he can jump out a window."

Will may have worried about her darkness before, but she wasn't trying to be irrational now. Alex had to die. He'd made it personal for Will a while ago, and even Ray, but now he'd made a personal strike against the entire team, their family, twice now.

"Yeah well that's if you beat me to it." Will told her. Frankie glanced back at him and smiled a little.

"There's gonna be a line, I want a shot too." Ray piped in. Susan patted his arm.

They all took their seats, Ray and Susan slid into the two near the front and Will and Frankie took ones a couple of rows back knowing Ray looked exhausted and was probably ready to get a little rest on the way back.

Still silent, they buckled in and got comfortable. As quiet as Frankie had been with him, he was a bit surprised she'd slid into the seat next to his own.

Once in the air, Frankie noticed Will wasn't even pestering her to talk. She took note of him being patient with her, but his jaw was clenched just as her back was tense. They were both scared for that dumb kid they cared about. She sighed heavily and decided maybe he needed some reassurance as much as she did. Her brain told her to leave it alone but those pesky human emotions she'd been feeling a lot more of since Will came into her life told her to do it. Will's hand was hanging below the seat next to her lap, and Frankie decided to brave it and gently touched his with the outside of her own. She moved her fingers over his until he moved his fingers to grasp her own. She gave him a reassuring squeeze and even let him hold it for a minute before she let go and leaned back in her seat.

Will can't say he seen it coming, but he told himself not to make a big deal of it. His only acknowledgment was to squeeze hers back and give her a smile before looking back ahead. Both of them quietly dozed off.

* * *

Will woke to Susan's voice, who was talking to Ray while he was on the phone. Frankie was dozing quietly still, her head dangerously close to being on his shoulder. But she stirred awake when he moved.

"What's going on?" Frankie said, voice a level below her normal.

"It was the team on the ground. Jai gave them the last known location he'd found. They searched the area for a while...and they found him." Ray told them, sounding happier than he probably should given the condition he was in.

What?!" Both Frankie and Will shouted at the same time.

"Yeah..So Ollerman stabbed him and left him behind a parked car on the street, a few blocks from his home. Guess he wasn't worried about us finding him." Ray told them.

"And?! Is he.." Frankie trailed off.

"Alive..for now. They rushed him to the ER. Jai's already heading there now. Last they knew he went into surgery." Susan had that way of staying calm and speaking clearly when things went bad. Will couldn't imagine not having her there to keep their tension in check.

Frankie wasn't sure whether to feel relief first or fear. Certainly both were rattling around in her mind. Will squeezed her arm and got up.

"He'll be okay you guys. Call it a gut feeling alright?"

The four of them grabbed a glass of the strongest thing available on the jet and some pastries before going over the plans to find Ollerman. But their first stop was going to be the hospital. They had just under two hours left of the flight. Two hours of waiting without a word of Standish's status and nothing to do.

* * *

Once Will had left them alone and Ray went back to napping, Susan finally was able to talk with Frankie find out just why she was so out of it.

"Okay, spill." Susan demanded quietly.

"Huh? Spill what?"

"You're acting different than usual and you've been too quiet. I know we're all worried but usually your worry comes with some anger and verbal sparring with Will. What happened?"

No, Frankie was not going to go there right now, especially with Will still on this plane.

"Nothing. I just...like you said, worried."

"Uh-huh."

"Okay and maybe I've got 7 different ideas running through my head on what I plan to do to Ollerman when we find him. Happy now?" Frankie grinned at her.

"No...because you're lying to me."

Frankie gave her a quizzical look. "Nope. Not lying."

"Sure you are. When you lie your wisdom teeth show."

"I don't have wisdom teeth."

Now Susan was the one to roll her eyes. "Oh you know what I mean! But that's okay."

"Is it."

"Yeah, you'll spill eventually. I can't tell if it's something with you and our boy over there, or guilt over something. But I'm here so take your time."

_Both_. Frankie thought to herself.

Frankie outwardly just rolled her eyes and told Susan okay.

Susan caught Will looking at them both from his seat at the back of the jet. She just gave him a nod and left Frankie to go sit by Ray.

Frankie let out a sigh and took another drink. This flight couldn't be over fast enough.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The rest of the flight seemed to drag by slowly but finally, the four agents landed and made it to the hospital in record time. As they rushed through the doors Jai was already waiting for them in the lobby.

"Hey," he greeted softly. Frankie gave him a very brief hug and Will was the first to speak.

"So, what do we know?"

Jai took a breath.

"He made it through surgery okay. They haven't brought him back to his room yet though. I..." he trailed off to let the team process it.

The rest of the group let out a collective breath they'd all been holding.

"...The knife was just centimeters from damaging any vital organs. But they said he's going to be fine."

"Yes!" Susan whispered enthusiastically, holding back a shout.

"See, I said he'd be okay!" Will said, excited. Relief washed over him as he had been praying he wouldn't be proved wrong.

"He still got stabbed." Frankie commented dryly

"Hey.."

She shrugged, then turned to Jai. "Wait, did anyone call his mom?"

"Yeah," Jai replied. "Unfortunately she was on a trip, but they managed to track her down quickly and she is heading back. She won't be here until tomorrow evening though. She may have had some choice words though...".

"I bet." Frankie grinned.

"Anyways, she did make me promise one of us would always be in there with him until she arrives."

"Oh yeah, of course. Right guys?" Asked Will. All of the team nodded.

"Ok, Ray and I are gonna go check in with the nurse & make sure he's good to go too." Susan said, still concerned with Ray who'd had a lingering headache on the flight home.

"We are? Oh yeah, right." Ray nodded, and followed Susan.

"Anything Ollerman related that you can tell us?" Frankie asked Jai.

"Unfortunately not. That team Ray sent out has had zero luck...zero...tracking him down so far. He's become a ghost."

"Not for long. That team isn't us. Look even if it's not today, we will get him. He's not getting away from us for long." Will told them.

The doctor came out a few minutes later and pretty much explained what Jai did, and then said they could see him but one or two at a time to visit.

"You go. You were here first. I need coffee anyways." Frankie told him. Jai nodded and made his way back to Standish's room.

Frankie disappeared and then reappeared a fee minutes later with two coffees. She handed the other to Will.

"It's terrible." She told him in warning.

He took a sip. Laughed and said "Yea that's bad."

Frankie shrugged. At this point they'd probably drink it if it tasted like sewage just to stay awake.

"I don't really want to be here right now." She admitted. And Will knew what she meant. She didn't mean she didn't want to be here for Standish. She meant that she wanted to be out there looking for Alex.

"I know. But there's nothing you can do out there alone. And there's nothing any of us can do in the next few hours that'll make any difference."

Frankie didn't respond, but her silence pretty much meant she agreed.

They sat in the chairs until Ray and Susan got back. Ray got the all clear to resume normal activities but to take it as easy as he needed to. Frankie decided to go switch places with Jai. He probably needed a coffee break himself.

Frankie walked in to find a side of Jai she's rarely seen before until recently. He was sitting next to the bed, rattling on about some new tech, having an entire conversation with his unconscious friend.

"Hey." She interrupted.

Jai jumped up from the seat.

"Yeah it's your turn. I was just.."

"Waiting on your friend to wake up?Yeah..it's ok." she smiled. "Look at us now." She made a face.

"What was it you said Francesca? Caring gets you dead?"

"Yeah...I know. Still might." She shrugged.

"Worth it?"

"Possibly." She smiled.

"Yeah. Same here. And I dislike it very much." But he really didn't.

She nodded. Jai left the room, giving Frankie a soft smile on his way out. Instead of the chair, Frankie sat on the large oversized chair in the corner and kept watch from there. Everything was starting to catch up with her.

* * *

So what Will walked into thirty minutes later was Frankie asleep on the sofa and Standish tiredly staring at her.

"Well hey there bud!" Will said, forgetting to try and not wake Frankie up. He patted Standish on the leg and went to sit down in the other chair.

"Um so what's up with her?" Standish asked groggily.

Will laughed. "You realize you're the one in the hospital bed right?"

"Well yeah..obviously." His voice was certainly more rough and quiet than usual.

"She's fine..jet lag probably." _And worry. _He thought silently.

Frankie stirred, realized she had an audience and jumped up.

"Easy there, Standish was just admiring your softer face."

"Shut up." She mock glared at Will, then she smiled at the kid. "Hey kiddo. You know when I said not to get killed that time, it wasn't a future invitation to get as close as you could right?"

"Yeah figured that out. Thanks mom." He rolled his eyes.

"Oh look he gets that from you too Frankie."

She sighed. "Speaking of...Your moms on her way." Frankie told him.

"Oh God." Standish said, closing his eyes.

"Hey, she's your mom."

Yeah and I love her. But she's gonna be so extreme about this, like crazy Frankie levels of mad. Just warning you."

"Hey! I'm remembering that for later when I can hit you again."

He and Will laughed.

"Ow ow...okay I shouldn't have laughed."

Will shot him a concerned look. A moment later, Susan & Ray appeared.

"Ohhh your awake! I wanna hug you but I don't wanna hurt you."

"Do it anyways." Standish told her.

She reached over and gently hugged him, mostly leaving air between them so not to lean on him.

"Worth it!" Standish muttered. Ray stepped around Susan.

"Look, I brought you jello and didn't steal it."

"Uhh wow..thanks man."

Will looked around the crowded room.

"Ok, well Frankie come on we don't want the doctor coming to yell at us. Glad your awake kiddo." Will patted his arm."I'll be back in a few ok?"

Standish nodded as Frankie followed Will out.

Frankie & Will exited the room into the hallway where Jai had walked back up.

Jai told them he was gonna go home for a few.

"I need to do the same." Frankie agreed. And a shower and change of clothes.

Before she gets a step away, Will stops her.

"Hey.."

"What?" Frankie turns back around.

"I know now isn't the time but..."

"Then don't Will. I'm going to go, can we just do this later?"

"It doesn't have to be now but we do need to talk."

She sighed. "I know. But not tonight ok?"

He nodded, accepting that what happened between them is low in priority next to Standish and finding Ollerman. He just didn't want to go backwards with her either.

Frankie smiled at him "Thanks. See you in the morning."

She left briskly. Will watched her go, and maybe she was running again, but at least this time she seemed to be willing to not go too far. She was willing to postpone the discussion for a later time. Maybe if they could find the son of a bitch who'd made all this happen, the Frankie from 24 hours ago would be there waiting for that next step with him.

Sure, she'd been right when she said there was a connection between them. He'd known it since he'd performed emergency surgery on her in a kitchen. She'd let go and trusted him to take care of her and they'd barely known each other. There was something about the pull that was there whenever they looked directly in each other's eyes. But Will never really thought about being more than a partner with her until a little later. He seen brief signs of it, a spark in that bank vault. A spark when they'd survived that bomb defusing. But then Frankie had to go and kiss him and open his mind up fully to all of the possibilities. Sure, she'd kind of cheapened the moment when she used sex to get information from that jerk at the wedding. And being fresh off the Gigi-Ray betrayal, he probably took it too hard. But now he knew her better, knew that when she had feelings, real ones, she found a way to run off and self sabotage them. Frankie had apologized in her own way. He probably shouldn't have walked away in the bar that time. But they'd come a long way since then. She'd come a long way since then. Will knew going forward with her now would be risking his heart even more than he had in his past relationships. She was someone completely unlike those he'd ever been with. And because now he really did see what they could be like together, it made things more real. Now if he could just convince her that whatever they started in Prague was a good thing, that they could be happy together.

But Frankie didn't go home. She finds herself at the door of the torn up Dead Drop. She breathes deeply and heads inside.

It's still a mess, not like anything could've changed. She wished she could wake up and the past few days hadn't occurred. That her and Will had had a peaceful night over Chinese food, talked about work, talked about fate. Closed out the night with drinking and talking. No sudden relationship changes. No Ollerman holding their friends hostage in their home away from home.

She knows they should all walk away from this place, find a new one...but other then her little apartment, this was her new home. Ollerman was probably licking his wounds, if he made any moves it wouldn't be soon. She pulled out her phone and made a few calls.

When she hears a noise at the door behind her a few minutes later she jumped and was about to reach for her gun, but stopped when she seen it was Jai.

"What are you do-?" She started.

"Same as you I'm guessing."

She laughed.

"So...what are you thinking." He asked.

"We could get it fixed up."

"Is that smart. For us?"

"For now. He knows we're looking for him and this time he's down an inside man. Maybe we can recreate this place, at least until we find a new one."

"Ok."

"Really?"

"Hey I like it here too. You call the crew in, I'll handle security. Assuming the director approves."

"He may not, but I'll let Ray deal with that once we've already started." She smirked. "Besides I already made a few calls."

"Were you going to tell anyone."

"Sure...after it was done. They'd make a big deal about it."

Jai smiled. "These people made us too soft Francesca."

She sighed. "I'm not soft."

"No..but softer. I didn't say it was a bad thing."

"I know."

"I've got ideas. First off...that entrance has to go. No one should be able to just walk in. I don't think the closed sign was very effective."

"Agreed...but I'm going to go now. I really do need a shower and I'll leave the brilliant technobabble for you to think about." She gave him a sincere smile, squeezed his arm and walked passed him to the door.


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning, Frankie arrived back at the hospital and walked into the room where Will was chatting with Standish and laughing. Standish looked a lot better, but was definitely still more tired than she was used to seeing him. Even on days she beat him in training.

"Well..you guys seem grossly happy. Did you actually sleep?" Frankie interrupted.

"Oh yeah I did...they gave me some _real_ good drugs too." Standish said, holding out the "real" for a beat longer than necessary.

Will laughed.

"Sounds like they haven't quite finished wearing off yet either." Frankie said.

Standish shrugged.

"So your mom's flight just landed. Ray sent a car for her so she could get here faster, she'll be here in less than an hour." She continued.

"Thanks."

Frankie nodded and headed out of the room and Will got up and followed her.

"You get any sleep yourself?" He asked her.

"Why, do I look that bad?" She laughed, giving a partial eye roll.

"Wha..no." Will corrected, though that was half right, she _did_ look like she hadn't slept well in days.

She smirked and shrugged. "I'm good. So Ray called and said once Anita shows up here we have a meeting at his office, about 10:00."

"Yeah he told me."

"Ok. Good."

They stayed silent for a minute, without discussing the events of Prague things were still a little awkward between them. Frankie put on her best neutral face. Will was sitting in silence for once, Frankie knew it had to be killing him but she was also grateful he wasn't forcing it. Maybe she'll tell him that someday.

A few minutes later Jai and Susan showed up, toting coffee and donuts.

"Ooh Donuts!" Will said.

"I hope your planning to sneak one into the kid or he's going to be pouting all day." Frankie suggested. Susan smiled at Frankie, then looked at Jai.

"Do it, Do it." Susan said cheerily. Jai smiled.

"Frankie. Susan! We can't just..." Will started to lecture, then decided not to. Then looked at Jai. "Fine. And it wasn't my idea!"

Will had to call the last part out because Jai was already heading down the hall.

"Ohh you rule breaker." Frankie teased.

"No coffee!" Will called to Jai again. Jai sat the cup down on a nearby chair and kept walking.

* * *

About forty minutes later, Anita Standish walked into the hospital full speed ahead. She rounded the corner to find the three teammates waiting for her. Frankie only knew what she knew about his mom from her intel back when she was chasing him down for the CIA, and then everything else was from things Standish had said over the past eight months, which wasn't a whole lot.

"Mr. Prince, Ray, said you would all be here. Now can someone please tell me what happened?" She asked them. She was kind, but there was a fire in her eyes.

Frankie looked at Will. Standish never told his mom, as directed, about his job other than that he worked for the government. Anita knew it had to do with computers. So for her, getting a phone call that said her son had been stabbed and knowing it had to do with work wasn't at all what she ever expected to hear.

Frankie introduced herself quickly and then Will, who then introduced Susan. Susan gave her a brief hug.

"What happened to my son?" She asked again.

Frankie again looked at Will. He was better at this.

So Will spent a couple of minutes giving her a very vague explanation about Standish being a hacker for the government, and that he'd made some enemies from it. He couldn't give her the details. Frankie knew Will hated lying, so he tried to stay as close to the truth as possible without revealing much. Frankie looked to Susan, they both weren't completely sure Anita bought the explanation, but she didn't ask for any more information. Right now, she was only concerned with going to see her boy.

"I'll walk you there." Frankie told her, she found herself liking his mother and she also figured the more distance she put between her and Will the longer she could go before she had to have the dreaded conversation about their kiss in Prague.

"Not to sound insensitive...but how was your trip?" Frankie asked. She didn't do small talk, but right now anything sounded better than letting her mind keep wandering back to Will.

Anita smiled. Frankie was also trying to distract her, and it worked.

* * *

Frankie came back to the waiting area a few moments later, finding Will and Susan in a conversation that died down when she approached.

"The question is, how patient are you willing to be?" Susan asked Will, before looking up and noticing Frankie.

"We're just..worrying about finding Alex." Susan said and gave her a soft smile. She wasn't a great liar either, but a sleep-deprived Frankie didn't question her. Frankie only nodded, despite knowing that was likely not what they were talking about.

Will normally loved dishing to Susan, whether it was Frankie related or not. But now he really didn't want to, this was between Frankie and him. But it was Susan, and she knew things. Luckily, other than a few words of advice she didn't badger him about it. Of course, that was likely because she was close with Frankie too.

Frankie picked up another donut, and they all finished off the coffee before heading back to Standish's room.

"Knock knock. How's it going in here?" Susan asked.

Standish shrugged as Anita sat back down in the chair.

"Talking her off the guilt train." Standish said.

Anita shot him a stern look.

"Hey, it's true."

"Well I rarely go on those work trips, and here I leave and you get hurt. That's not a very good sign."

Standish just sighed. He was twenty-six and worked with a team of spies. He was going to get hurt, it was only a question of when. Not that he'd tell her that.

Frankie let out a breath. Looks like she wasn't the only one who felt guilty when there was absolutely nothing that could've changed things.

"Come on. It would've happened anyways. How often am I actually home? It was a work trip mom, not like you were out gambling in Vegas." Standish joked.

"Oh, I know that Eds, and I can accept that. But it took an entire day to get here. I could've been too late."

Standish covered his face with his hands at the nickname, and Will put a hand on Anita's shoulder. "Hey." Will tried to think of the right words to use because he couldn't exactly explain everything. "If the surgery wasn't going well, our guys would've had a jet to you and you would've been back here in record time."

She nodded. It didn't necessarily help, but it was a start. Frankie wasn't sure what the point was of coddling people in general, but she had seen the comfort it brought to his mom when Will spoke, so maybe it was worth something. The problem was, any of them could die out in the field without even a chance to make it back home in the first place. What then?

* * *

"I like her." Frankie said.

"Hey good, I'm sure he'll love it if you were friends with his mom."

"Ok let's not jump the gun here, I just met her."

"Hey, you liked me right away!" Said Susan from behind them.

"Yeah well, you are pretty great."

"Ha! You're right, I am."

Will laughed a bit before he turned to Frankie. "Wait, so if we're mom and dad..."

"Not that again." Frankie sighed loudly, rubbing her forehead.

"No but he gets two moms. That's nice."

"I am not his mom."

"Work mom. You know, how people have work wives, that sorta thing."

"Work wife? You better not be calling me that behind my back."

"Of course not, I wouldn't need to go behind your back. Wait, was that permission?"

Frankie rolled her eyes. "Yeah Will, sure."

"Really?"

"No."

"Fine."

Susan and Jai just walked behind them sighing loudly at their bickering.

Jai leaned over to Susan. "I think I liked it better when they were abnormally quiet earlier."

* * *

Frankie and Will made it to Ray's office about twenty minutes later. They took a seat and noted Ray was in serious mode again. It was always a rare day when he wasn't cracking a joke.

"We've got a list of four locations Ollerman used to reside in. He may not have hit the ground after he jumped, but he had to land somewhere and the fall had to injure him. He's not going to be one hundred percent. So if we find him, he's going to have back up. But this is definitely our best shot.

"Probably why he didn't take Standish with him for leverage, or stay longer to make sure he killed him." Will commented.

"I don't know..he seems to plan out everything. I agree on all accounts but if Standish is alive, he probably wanted him that way, as a message." Frankie countered.

Ray nodded.

"Unfortunately I was told that we're splitting the team up for our search."

What?" Frankie asked. Will looked at her, and then at Ray worriedly.

"Director Casey wants this taken care of quickly so we can move on to other assignments. You and Will are going to take a small unit each, and Jai's going to provide technical back up until Standish is released. Susan will go with one of you, but there will be about five of you each. But don't worry, we'll all be connected over coms."

"What about you?" Will asked.

"They didn't approve of me in the field for another week." Ray pouted.

"It's ok, I know you want to get him but it's for your own good," Will said.

Ray half-heartedly shook his head in agreement.

"You'll check two locations each. For the sake of our team's career, try not to go off-book too much okay?"

They both agreed, but they also liked working with their own team better. She knew Will had her back and vice versa.

* * *

Susan and Jai met up with them outside Ray's office two hours later. They'd all freshened up and were ready to go. It was decided Susan would go with Frankie's team as that unit had one less agent.

"Ok, stay on comms. If you need to change course, tell us first." Will stated.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Jai set up a work station in one of the conference rooms and Ray came in to sit across from him. Both ready to guide the two teams out of trouble if needed.

"Be careful please!" Ray called out as the three of them were leaving. Will and Frankie knew he didn't mean them, that was solely for Susan, who gave him a look back and nodded.

* * *

Two hours later, the two teams were both moving in on their second location. The previous one Frankie and Susan's unit found looked to have been abandoned. They did a thorough search of the entire warehouse and collected whatever they could find that would help them assess Ollerman's previous plans.

Will's team also had found an empty building, but it wasn't abandoned nearly as long as the other Frankie's had. They gathered up the data they could find. Some of it looked similar to the more recent activities Ollerman had been involved with before he sent them all to Prague.

Now heading into the second location, Will wasn't hopeful they'd have any more luck. Ollerman wasn't going to go somewhere he'd been before, not right now. But this was what Casey had requested. As a sanctioned mission, they had to rule out every location they'd found. True to his thoughts, his team found an empty old house and nothing but dead ends. He called it into Ray and Frankie. It'd been two minutes though, still no response from Frankie or Susan.

"Frankie? You guys there?" he tried again.

Another minute passed. His team looked at him as worry began to show on his face. Finally, the comm crackled.

"Sorry, that took a few minutes."

"What?!"

"Well...it's not him. Sorry. But we found some guards and a couple of his men."

"Everything okay?"

"We're good. They're all down...well some of them are tied up." Frankie said, shrugging. Susan smiled.

"Good work. Meet you back at the office?"

"Yeah."

An hour later, they all met outside of Ray's office and headed into the conference room. Casey's two units took the men Frankie's team found down below for questioning. That fourth building had a smaller locker of weapons and a generous amount of cash. Unfortunately, though, Will had a good sense they weren't lying when they swore that they hadn't seen Ollerman in weeks and didn't know where he was.

Ollerman knew how to hide. They'd red flagged him and all airports were on alert as soon as the call came in from Will about Standish's voicemail. But Ollerman likely had his own way out if indeed he planned to leave the country.

"What about his wife and kid that he was perfectly happy cheating on?" Frankie asked. "I mean, he seems perfectly happy holding our team hostage. Think he'd show up if we grabbed them?"

Will shook his head. "Even if that got approved, we'd be stooping to his level."

"I'm not exactly opposed to that. This needs to end. It's not like we'd actually hurt them."

"And he'd know that. Besides, message or not he went after Standish because of Tina. Take his kid? It's only going to get worse. No, we need to find him ourselves."

Frankie sighed. "Fine. Okay. So what next?"

"Nothing." Ray stated.

"What?"

"Casey says Ollerman is clearly in the wind and so long as he's not actively threatening our team, we need to move on to other missions, just as soon as Standish is back in the game. Until then, we've been ordered to take a week and clear our heads. Take a bit of time to ourselves."

"But..." Frankie started.

"Frankie...it's fine." Will told her. "We all want this to be over. And it will. We'll get him, but that day isn't today."

She nodded. Will knew what to say, and he was right anyways.

They arrived early the next morning to check on Standish. Standish told them he'd be released soon, and Anita sternly told him only if he went home and rested as directed. Will told Standish that he was not allowed to come back to work for at least a week after release. That wasn't unexpected, but Standish still wasn't completely happy about it. He'd come a long way from the guy who wanted to stay in the safety of his computer station after the fall from that roof months ago. He'd been stabbed and on the brink of death just a couple days before and yet he wanted nothing more than to get back to his team and help them find the son of a bitch who did this.

Everyone left the hospital except Anita. The team all seemingly headed home, ready to take some time to themselves after a rough night of searching that lead nowhere.

Frankie and Jai, however, had other plans. They got to the dead drop by 10:00 AM and met the cleanup crew. At least one thing seemed to be going right. Frankie was more than happy to sit and drink her coffee at the bar, she watched Jai leading around the crew, making demands at each corner. Luckily the office upstairs, which mostly was just used by Will, didn't get damaged much in the fight. One less thing that had to be repaired.

Frankie was three quarters the way through her coffee when the sound of the door opening grabbed her attention. She was on edge after the Ollerman incident, and like with Jai, she was ready to deal with whoever was walking in uninvited.

She sighed with relief. Susan and Ray.

"Oh, it's just you." Frankie pulled her shirt back over her gun.

"Uh yeah...what's going on Frankie?" Susan asked.

"I could ask you guys that since you're here." Frankie teased.

"I had some of my work upstairs, was going to grab it and we were close by. Now stop stalling."

Frankie shrugged. "Well as you can see, Jai and I called for a repair job, though Jai's really going crazy with it. It's kind of his thing."

Both Ray and Susan looked at Frankie, surprised a bit.

"Hey, you didn't ask me first? I'm offended you wouldn't get my approval," he said, joking. After a beat, he continued. "Wait, did you get any approval?"

Frankie gave him an eye roll. "Of course. I already called Director Casey, and at least for now, we got the all-clear."

Jai came into the room. "That's true. She called him. I mean, after she already called for those guys to come to give us a bid, but she definitely called him."

Frankie gave him a dirty look. "Thanks, Jai." He just grinned.

"Whatever! This is awesome. Look at you doing something nice for our team. I could hug you." Susan started.

"Look, let's not make a huge deal over it okay? It'd be just as much work to find a new place and I don't know about you guys, but I happen to like it here."

"Oh, Frankie...Why didn't you tell us?"

"She was going to after it was done." Jai piped in.

"Ohh like a surprise. Ha!" Ray said excitedly.

Frankie couldn't help it, she smiled a little bit.

"Whatever, you guys are annoying. Now go get your stuff and let me drink my coffee." She said, but there was affection in her voice. "Oh! And don't tell Will!"

Ray took off upstairs and Susan laughed and patted Frankie's shoulder.


	5. Chapter 5

**1 Week Later. **

The team had taken their mandatory week off, which had been hard but necessary. Will had taken his time off by following his own leads at home. He'd even pulled files from long before Ollerman shot Ray and came out as a traitor, just to see what they could've missed. Eventually, he closed his files and put them all away. Until they had something new, he couldn't keep spending all of his time on him. He also checked on Standish quite a bit and made a very bittersweet call to Paul's wife to check in on her and apologize over and over again. Iona was very kind to him though. Frankie wasn't the only one with guilt, but Will's had to do with asking Paul for help and then that got him killed. Iona swore she knew what his job meant and that it wasn't Will's Fault. Will knew it too. But in these situations, words don't help much, only time. Time and family, which Will was missing right now. His team was all out resting in their own way. Even Frankie he'd only spoken to by phone once briefly when he'd had a question about her mission to grab Standish hoping there'd be some intel on Ollerman. The rest of their communication had been via text.

Frankie spent her days with Jai at the Dead Drop watching over the crew working. It was coming along and the clean up was all done. The only thing left was the rest of Jai's security measures. So Jai made a call to Will and Susan, who'd called Ray to bring them all together.

Susan and Ray showed up first, congratulating the two of them for the work on the bar. Will showed up a moment later, slowly opening up the door and stepping in. He looked around in surprise and then smiled.

"Hey..guys what is this?"

"I know isn't it great?" Susan asked, excited.

"Yeah! But how did..."

Susan looked back and nodded toward Jai and Frankie. Ray smiled.

Frankie shrugged and Jai then pointed at her. "Her idea!"

"Jai!"

Will looked to Frankie.

"Really?"

"No..I mean..sort of. Jai was involved!"

Jai laughed. "I merely said it was a good idea and gave her my technological expertise."

"Jai, you've spent literally every day here bossing around the crew and making sure they got everything right. You did way more than I did, I made some calls."

"Well...Ok, that's true too." Jai smiled proudly.

Will slung an arm around Susan. "Well, I think it's great." Susan said.

"You Guys!" Will started.

"Nope. Don't make it sappy."

"Oh, I'm so making this sappy. We're here and we've got the band back together..."

Frankie rolled her eyes and Jai looked to her for help, but he didn't get it. "Ok enough. Let's just drink. Here!"  
Frankie slid them all a glass.

They all took a shot to celebrate.

"So, I've got an early morning meeting tomorrow to get intel on our next assignment. Looks like we're all ready to roll.." said Ray, but he was interrupted.

"Well almost!" Came a voice from the door.

Everyone looked up to see Standish standing there smiling.

They all yelled their hellos simultaneously. Will met him halfway for a hug, then the other three jumped in, even Jai who gave a very brief shoulder squeeze.

Frankie smiled at him affectionately. "Hey kiddo."

"You're not going to let me hug you are you?"

"Not today". She shrugged, smirking.

"You don't have to hug me back."

"Maybe next time."

"Y'all heard her..she said next time."

She gave him a stern look. "What, Don't you dare get stabbed again."

Standish looked at his feet. "Oh right, never mind."

Everyone laughed.

"So anyways, I can't go with ya'll on this next one. But I get to do my thing from here."

He tried to hide his disappointment but it would be another couple of weeks before they were going to let him go out in the field.

"Hey don't worry about it, you're here and that's great!" Will said and gave him a pat on the shoulder.

They all had a drink together and spent time laughing and talking. Jai gave them the rundown of new security features that are nearly ready, including new shatterproof glass windows, and a new door with retina scan technology. It would mostly look like the same door as before, but with glass changes and the additional scanner entry should make it very difficult for anyone to just bust in. There would also be an alarm system put in, and his "Batcave" was getting a panic button that would automatically alert the team's phones and the FBI directors' office should anyone break-in.

Susan and Ray leave first, they seemed to be spending even more time together now that they were outed to the whole team. Standish follows Jai to his secret room to shake the rust off since it'd been a while since he'd done much. That left Frankie and Will alone in the back room.

—

Frankie grabbed them more beer, and when she handed Will his, he finally spoke up and asked if they could have that conversation she'd been avoiding.

"So.." Will started.

"No just let me say this before I decide to not."

"Ok.."

"I'm not saying I regret that...moment."

"It's called a kiss Frankie."

She rolled her eyes and huffed.

"Sorry, continue." He appeared to look embarrassed.

"Look what happened since, it just further proves what I told you before. We got careless and missed that call. What would've happened if those guys hadn't shown up? What if it was hours later before we got that message?"

"Frankie..that didn't happen."

"No, it didn't. But it could've." She stated calmly. She wasn't angry, or regretful of the kiss. She'd wanted it, they'd both wanted it since the first one all those months ago. But she needed him to understand why she couldn't do this.

"Hey, don't get me wrong I'm happy you're basically admitting out loud how much you care about Standish but.."

she sighs. "Hey I didn't say.."

"Oh stop. You do."

she shrugs, didn't correct him.

"Either way...Right now, this is how I feel."

"We couldn't have stopped what happened. He still went home before us and we'd still planned to stay another day to ID the body." He shivers. The body that wasn't Ollerman's.

"I know that. But I told you what I did for a reason. Maybe part of that reason was protecting myself but I also did mean it. So...I'm just not there yet."

Will nods, he can't argue with her, as it would only push her away. And he respected the decision she'd made months back so he had to respect it now. But things had changed so much since then. He meant what he told Ollerman. She'd changed him. He believed he was more grounded, and a better agent. Frankie had too, She was opening up, letting in those human emotions she'd denied for so long. They both knew it, but if he pushed her now, she could take steps back that he didn't want her to take.

"Look. I'm not saying never, maybe...maybe someday..but not today." Frankie stood up and leaned toward him and gave him a quick peck on the cheek, surprising him. She turned and headed out without looking back at him.

Will watched her go, and despite being disappointed at her decision, she actually left him very hopeful. Frankie hadn't run, she'd explained herself and she also said not yet. Which implied if he gave her some space and time, while also being there with her as a partner like he was before, she would be ready at some point. And he was willing to take his time with her. He'd jumped into a few relationships already that didn't work out, and even if Ollerman and Tina had been to blame for the last one, he knew this time taking things slower with Frankie would be better. He'd really liked Emma, but he didn't sit and think about the future with her. At first because of Gigi, and obviously, he'd lost Emma before he had the time to think too much about it, but more than likely it's because he just hadn't seen a future with her yet the same way he had in past relationships. Hell, he'd talked more to Frankie about their hypothetical futures than he ever had with Emma. So Will would wait for her...not forever, but he would wait.

Frankie went home feeling torn. She'd meant what she said, but she also knew Will was right. Ollerman probably had back up plan after back up plan and what happened was going to happen. But knowing that and believing it was different. Having a moment with Will in Prague was so different than getting back on home turf. Because this was reality. It was easy to lose yourself in the moment, but dealing with something real while they were back home was something she wasn't quite comfortable with yet. Kelly had been right, and she knew she needed to start letting people in. Knew she didn't really have anything to feel guilty about. But she was good at denying herself of things that made her happy. It was a habit. Right now, just having the team and a place to belong to was a huge step. She was going to have to do this one step at a time.

—-

* * *

The next morning Will and Frankie met at Ray's office as they always did. They said their usual hellos and carried on with their old banter. Things seemed to be pretty normal, which Frankie appreciated.

"Hey guys. Feels like old times! Even better than old times because you're not giving me that look of indignation."

"Ray."

"Sorry! Anyways...so we have our next assignment...in Ireland."

Frankie smiled.

"What?" Will asked.

She shrugged. They had good bars. Not that she needed to say that out loud.

"So there have been a few different attacks by the IRA this past week. The reason we were brought in is that there is a journalist, Aileen O'Donnel, she's an American citizen but she is from Ireland originally. She's actually one of our undercover agents. She was there to get information about some IRA movements that would affect the US, but she was killed in a car bombing two days ago. She had a fiancé over there, who was also her informant. He's on the run from them, and our job is to find him and bring him to safety.

"Is he a suspect. I mean, how do we know it wasn't him?" Frankie asked.

"We don't, but Aileen seemed to trust him. So for now, we've got to go by her information." Ray answered, shrugging slightly.

Betrayal seemed to be a common theme lately for their team, and Frankie wasn't about to rule it out.

"Anyways, there's a rumor of a big attack from the IRA coming up. We also need to find out where and stop it."

"Great. We'll be ready." Will said. They were all ready to get back out there. For some reason, a mandatory week off after a rough time wasn't the same as a vacation.

"See you guys in the morning. Flight leaves at 7:15. I sent you everything you need."

They nodded their thanks at Ray and left his office.


	6. Chapter 6

**Bishop Gate Hotel. Derry/Londonderry Ireland.**

The team arrived at the hotel the next evening. It was a near eleven hour flight, which put them to the hotel around 7:00PM New York time, and 12:00AM in Ireland. Other than making plans, there wasn't a whole lot they were going to get done tonight.

Ray managed to get them rooms at the Bishop Gate Hotel, a mix of new amenities with classic touches. They also happened to have a fabulous bar downstairs. Even Frankie seemed happier than usual.

"You guys seem excited to be here." Susan commented to Frankie and Will. Susan had caught Frankie's grin when they entered the lobby.

Frankie shrugged casually. "I like Ireland."

"I second that" Will piped in.

Susan laughed. They all went to their own rooms to unpack, except Susan and Ray who were sharing one. Will shook his head as they all got off the elevator and he watched them head off together. It was one thing to know, and another to see it. Which after Prague and their secret being officially out, neither Susan nor Ray tried to hide being together in public. And as hurt as Ray had made him feel before, Will was not unhappy for his two friends.

A few minutes later, they all met up in Will's room to go over the plans for the mission. Standish was put on speaker from the New York Field office, as they'd decided that was a safer choice for him at that location until Jai finished putting the retina scanner in place at the Dead Drop.

"So first things first, we need to try and find Kieran. Jai, you and Standish work on getting us that location. The rest of us will head out in the morning and check out Aileen's sources, see if we can figure out what she found out before she was killed. Standish, can you also try and find out what you can on the alleged attack that's being planned? We need to try and get ahead of that."

"Yeah, on it. I'll keep you guys posted."

"Great." Will hung up and the rest of the team headed out of the room.

* * *

**The Wig and Gown Bar & Lounge, Bishop Gate Hotel.**

With the time difference, no one was really ready for sleep. Lucky for Frankie, the bar downstairs was open. She headed through the opening into the bar, and found Jai, who had the same idea and was already there.

Frankie took the barstool next to him and ordered her drink.

"Mmm, this reminds of me of that time in Dublin." Jai said casually, taking a sip of his Dead Rabbit whiskey.

"It does. That was a fun job."

"It was."

Frankie laughed.

"So..you know I've been meaning to ask you, what's been happening with you and Will?"

Frankie shot him a look.

"What? Someone's been hanging out with Susan too much."

"Oh denial, lets go with that."

"It's not. I just have nothing to talk about. Will and I agreed to keep things professional."

"Yes, so you said months ago."

"Nothing's changed...much."

"Ok." Jai shook his head. "Much." He mumbled.

"You know this new you that's into gossiping about my social life? Not so fun, and it's all Susan's fault." Frankie said, laughing.

Jai shrugs. "Who else looks after your best interests the way I do."

"Me?" She answered.

He gave her a look.

"..and you." She corrected.

"That's better. Oh look, Speaking of..."

Frankie rolled her eyes and looked past Jai to see that Will was walking through the opening to the bar. Frankie let out a breath.

"Oh hey guys. Guess no ones tired." Will said, shooting them a smile.

"I'm tired actually." Jai said, just to be difficult.

Frankie just rolled her eyes and shot a smirk at Will.

"Sit down already." Frankie commented.

Will happily complied. After a minute the bartender dropped off his drink and a few minutes later Jai made an excuse about checking in with Standish and left, to Frankie's annoyance. Jai caught her look she gave him when Will wasn't looking but he just smiled and walked away. It's not that she was afraid to be alone with Will, not really, but still she did her best not to make a habit of it since Prague. It'd been a couple weeks and they hadn't even had movie night or mission briefing dinners. While they seemed to be back to normal, being alone together on a mission away from home was a recipe for disaster to Frankie.

But it wasn't a disaster. Frankie had always liked drinking with Will, and Will liked drinking with her.

Will had been happy to find Jai and Frankie in the bar, and even though he suspected Jai left on purpose, he wasn't unhappy about that either. It'd been a couple weeks since he and Frankie had spent any decent amount of time together. He'd also be lying if he said he wasn't a little nervous. He didn't want to push her, but he also wanted to spend time with her and wait her out. He still was hopeful. The hopefulness paid off tonight, because Frankie stayed. They talked about nonsense, or mostly Will talked and she listened, but it was nice. An hour later, they both went back to their respective rooms, grateful to spend the evening with their partner like they did before things got a little crazy in Prague.

* * *

The next morning Frankie, Will, Susan, and Ray split up into twos while they waited to hear from Standish.

It was hard to believe that there was so much bad in this place. The sights were beautiful and the towns were so great for tourists. It was sad that after a so-called peace deal twenty years prior these terrorists were making a come back. Which only showed that they'd never really left. This group waited for years to act on their plans. Now there were attacks against their own, even if Aileen wasn't really their own. They certainly thought she was for a long time. There were parcel bombs being sent to transport hubs in London, England along with other parcel bombs sent to the University of Glasgow in Scotland. There had been more than one innocent civilian killed in riots during police searches. Just normal people caught in the crossfire.

Aileen had a couple of friends here that she'd deemed trustworthy, but they didn't want to spook them. Frankie put on her best reporter act, as did Will. With Aileen posing as a journalist, they figured this was their best way in with her friends. They said they wanted to do a piece on her death, and shed some light onto it.

They'd been to two of her acquaintances' homes, but the third, her friend Sara, was more helpful than the other two they'd talked to, and she said Aileen was a great journalist but seemed to be getting too much of the wrong kind of attention lately. But Kieran was supposedly a good guy, and Sara liked him. She said other than when they had to, the pair of them really didn't spend much time around Kieran's family. But Kieran played the part of following his family's ideals so he could stay under the radar.

After leaving Sara's place, Standish finally called them with a location on Kieran. About fifteen minutes later, Frankie and Will found him hiding in a warehouse. Susan and Ray were notified while Frankie and Will were prepared to question the guy. It certainly said something that Kieran didn't try to make a run for it once he found out who they were.

* * *

**Abandoned Warehouse. Foyle Street. Londonderry.**

"Look, I swear it wasn't me. Aileen meant the world to me. I hate the IRA as much as she did." Kieran told them. He clearly had a rough night and was emotional since finding out about his fiancé's passing.

"So why'd you run?" Frankie asked, firm and to the point.

My parents, they're big supporters. Always have been. I've been feeding Aileen what little I could without looking suspicious. But with her death, I just...

"Were afraid you'd be next?" Frankie suggested.

"Probably. If they were onto Aileen, it means they found out her reporting wasn't in the IRA's favor after all. They didn't trust her from the first meetin', because of her job. But she'd played it well, acted like she was on their side. It'd be worse if they found out she was CIA."

"She told you that too?"

"Yeah. Once we got engaged. We didn't keep secrets."

Will smiled, which caused Frankie to roll her eyes. Oh, Will had to be enjoying this.

"Look, with us being together, the IRA probably assumed I was the one leaking information to her. Even if they thought maybe not on purpose, I'd still be a liability. Even my parents couldn't stop them from taking me out if they thought they had a reason too. I don't care what happens to me, but I don't want to die before I find out who killed Aileen."

Normally Frankie would take longer to believe someone, and keep pressing. Will's optimism seemed to be rubbing off on her because she believed Kieran. Or maybe his story was just that believable.

"Do you know where the next attack is?" Will asked.

"No. I've got a regular life, regular job, and despite my parent's activities and their belief in my loyalty, no one would trust me enough to tell me that information."

Frankie sighed.

"Look, we need to get you to safety and out of the country."

"No, I don't want to leave. Not until we find out who killed my fiancé."

"Sorry, that isn't an option. You may not know about the big attack but you know enough to be helpful. Besides, Aileen wouldn't want you to get killed for her." Frankie told him, trying to persuade him to leave.

Will wanted to step in and try to soften the blow, but he also agreed with Frankie. He could see both sides.

"Maybe not, but she knows I wanted them stopped as badly as she did. Her parents were killed many years ago in an IRA terrorist attack. She left Ireland with her grandparents after that. She needed this and I owe it to her to help." Kieran told them, determined.

Frankie's heart pounded upon hearing that, a reminder of her parents dying in a terrorist attack and not being with them, Getting that call that changed her life while in Europe. Frankie spent years angry, but mostly at herself. Like with Standish, she spent the first moments of her grief blaming herself for her parents death. They were coming to see her, and if they hadn't been they'd still be alive. But over time she took that anger and turned it toward everyone else she hunted down for the CIA, and even before the CIA. Spending all these years fighting because it was the only way she knew how to deal with all that anger. Aileen did something similar, just in a more discreet way. Frankie had long let go of thinking she was just getting justice for her parents, but she kept herself going thinking she was maybe getting justice for those kids like her out there. She'd lost her way plenty of times, but now she had a team and someone to keep her from going back down a path of vengeance. Clearly, Aileen found support in Kieran.

Will noticed Frankie going quiet. And knowing enough of her story, he knew why she was silent. So he spoke up to Kieran.

"Great, you can still help us. Just do it from a safe location with some of our team."

Kieran nodded in agreement.

They got Kieran to the safe house, where Ray and Susan took lead on keeping him there for the night, and Frankie and Will headed back to the hotel to meet with Jai.

Standish narrowed down the attack to 3 locations in Londonderry. With Aileen's involvement, they assumed the one where there was a press conference with not only Ireland officials but some higher-ups from the US and England made sense for being the best option for an attack.

* * *

**Bishop Gate Hotel Lobby**

Frankie and Will were set to leave to meet with Ray Susan and Kieran in the safe house.

"Frankie. Here." Jai said. Frankie turned back to him.

Jai handed her a box.

"Oohh more jewelry." Frankie said excitedly.

"Does it explode?" Standing asked from on speaker.

"What? Why would she wear it if it explodes?!" Jai argued.

Frankie rolled her eyes at their banter. Will shook his head.

"Right. My bad."

"To be fair to Standish, my watch exploded." Will said, reminding them of the time in the vault.

"See!"

Jai sighed heavily as Frankie opened the box and smiled at the earrings.

"They're your Comms. It looks like simple jewelry, but no one's going to suspect you of being on the job out there."

"Whoa how come I don't get any?" Will asked.

"Because I like her better...And they're earrings." Jai made an 'obviously' face.

Frankie smirked at Will.

"I could rock an earring." he said.

Frankie snorted out the laughter she'd been holding in. Standish was cackling on the phone. Even Jai was grinning.

"No...nope. Just nope." Standish said through the laughter.

"Hey!" Will protested.

"Will, I'm sure there's many things you could pull off...but I just can't see that at all." Frankie admitted.

Ok, if she was being honest Will probably could pull off anything, including an earring. But she'd never tell him that, and it was way more fun for everyone to tease him about it.

He shook his head. He was only slightly offended since he'd been joking originally anyway.

Frankie and Will headed out the door, and Jai ended the call with Standish.


	7. Chapter 7

_Hey guys, i had to update this quickly so if theres any errors let me know and ill update this! thank you!_

**Londonderry N. Ireland. February 1st.**

"...Maybe I should do a fake one. You know just to prove that I could rock it."

"Will...shut up about the earring."

He shot her a pouty look, to which Frankie just smirked.

They were driving through the outside of London on Shipquay Place, headed for the safe house. Will didn't resume his argument though since his phone rang. Frankie handed the phone to him and he answered quickly seeing Susan's name on the caller ID.

"Will." She loud-whispered.

"Susan, what's wrong?" His tone dropped. Frankie looked over at Will worriedly.

He put Susan on speaker as Frankie sped up.

"Will, the power was cut. There are men outside."

"You'd think they'd stage an attack in the night," Frankie commented.

"You'd think." Susan replied. "We've got three, maybe four men out there. Can't tell if they're trying to wait us out or break-in."

"How'd they track him down?" Will asked.

"We checked when he got here, and you said he ditched his old clothes on the way. No tracker found."

"Then they've probably been following him for some time. We didn't see a tail, but that's doesn't mean there wasn't one." Will answered.

"Keep Kieran safe, you guys know what you're doing. We'll be there in ten." Frankie said.

"Got it."

Susan hung up.

—

* * *

**Safe House.**

"Hope they get here soon. Those guys out there got more guns than we do." Ray commented.

"They'll be here soon," Susan replied. "Frankie said ten minutes."

"Who's driving?"

"Frankie." Susan paused."Yeah...they'll be here in eight."

Ray laughed.

"If it comes down to it, you two get yourselves outta here. I'm who they're after." Kieran said.

"Aw, buddy that's not how this works." Ray said.

Susan nodded. "He's right. This is what we do. Everything is going to be fine. One thing I do know is how good our team is."

A few minutes later, they could hear the IRA men breaching the back door and one or two of them on the side entrance. Susan took her gun and Kieran to a room in the back with no windows and barred the door. Ray hid in the corner of one of the room entrances, waiting to start a counter-attack as soon as he could see them.

It was only a short time later that Frankie and Will arrived. They got Ray's warning text about the men moving in along with the locations of each target. They had decided to stay off comm's so they wouldn't be heard.

Will nodded toward the side entrance, Frankie gave him the signal that she understood and headed to the side door, and he went to the back. Frankie snuck behind the man who just broke into the side door and took him out with ease.

Ray caught one of them coming down the narrow hall and shot his leg, then knocked him out. Will took out the other two, who'd tried to fire at him but weren't fast enough. Will and Ray headed to the back and knocked on the door. Susan opened it and came out with Kieran.

"Anyone else think that was too easy?" Susan asked.

"IRA soldiers don't normally go down so fast." Kieran agreed.

They walked back up to the front to find Frankie tying the man Ray shot in the leg to a chair.

The guy was conscious again soon. Will didn't stop Frankie when she pressed her gun into the man's thigh. He knew her better now, and he trusted her to get this done without going too far. He knew there'd be times she struggled with the lines not to cross, but she was better than she was and this wasn't one of those times.

A few minutes later, between Frankie's threats and Susan's profiling, the guy gave them information. They weren't typical IRA soldiers. Just low-level ones trying to move up the ranks, hired by someone to set the bomb in the car that killed Aileen.

"They trusted you to tie up the loose end on Kieran then? After such a public attack on Aileen that was meant to be kept quiet?" Frankie asked.

The guy sighed. "Well, that's because we were supposed to kill him and we needed to make it right."

Kieran looked up. "What?"

"You're fiancé was just a bonus. You were the target." The guy smiled. He was an idiot and broke fairly easily, but he certainly had no remorse for the things he'd done.

"Oh God...it was my car." Kieran said. "I hadn't thought of that. I thought she was being followed."

Frankie pressed her gun harder into the man's leg, close to the wound Ray's gun made.

"Why?!"

The guy winced in pain. "I don't know ok, we just did our jobs! And she said..."

"She?" Kieran asked. "She who?"

The guy shrugged.

"I'd tell him if i were you...you actually haven't seen her mad yet." Will said, stepping up next to Frankie.

"Eliza McNally."

Frankie smiled at Will. Their partnership certainly seemed to have come a long way. Susan watched the two of them look at each other and suppressed a laugh.

"What?" Kieran asked, surprised.

"You know her." Will stated.

"Yeah, we dated. Years ago. Her family and mine were close. She was very supportive of the IRA, but we didn't part on bad terms...least i thought not."

Susan gave the man a hard look.

"Don't look at me! I don't ask questions. I get paid, and I do my job."

The team walked away several feet.

"So...Aileen wasn't killed by the IRA. Well, not their regulars anyways." Will said.

Kieran sighed. "No..but Eliza...I mean I know she didn't love Aileen or the fact that we were together, but I never suspected this. Why want me or Aileen dead?"

"Only one way to find out. We need to find her." Frankie told them.

"Okay Ray, Susan...go back to the hotel with Kieran." Will touched his earpiece. "Jai, did you catch all that?"

"Yeah. What do you want me to do?"

"Let Standish know what's going on. We need him to find Eliza. If she did have a hand in this she'll probably be laying low until it's done."

"Got it."

"Ok, let's go." He said, nodding to Frankie.

"I'm coming with you two." Kieran said.

"You should go with them." Frankie said.

"No. Aileen is dead because of me. They were comin' after me not her."

"If Eliza wanted your death, she probably wanted Aileen's too. You may have been the target, but she was probably more than happy to take you both out. Don't be too hard on yourself, there's nothing you could have done man." Will said.

"Maybe not, but i still need to go. I want to know why."

Will nodded.

"Alright then let's move." Frankie urged.

—

* * *

**Eliza McNally's Office. Londonderry.**

As suspected, Eliza was not at home. But only moments later, Standish tracked her to her work. They head to her office downtown and Frankie gets them through the locks. Frankie and Will enter with guns drawn, Kieran two steps behind them. Eliza is caught off guard. She tries her best to look shocked and outraged at their arrival.

"Kieran..what in the hell is going on here?"

Kieran shook his head. "Don't. Don't pretend you don't know exactly what's going on."

"The men you hired, they rolled on you, Eliza. So we're taking you out of here either way, but first, our friend here would love to hear what you have to say." Will told her.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Kieran marched aggressively towards her but Will put a hand on his arm to stop him. Frankie raised her gun straight at her.

"Eliza..be smart. I'm sure you'd rather leave here in cuffs than in a body bag. Tell him what he wants to know."

Finally, Eliza lets out a heavy sigh and admits that she found out about Kieran's betrayal, and that she couldn't stand that he'd left her just to betray their family's legacy. Will cuffs her and they take her into custody to the local police.

—-

* * *

**Derry. Peace Bridge. A couple hours later.**

Frankie, Will, Susan, and Ray were walking back in the direction of their hotel on the Peace Bridge, a walking and cycling bridge across the River Foyle in Derry. Kieran was safely headed for US soil. He wanted to make things right with Aileen's grandmother, the only family she had left. She lived in Jersey now, so he was headed there and considering what happened here, he'd be on the outs with his family now that they knew who Aileen was and that he had been feeding her information. Maybe he'd make a permanent move to the US eventually.

The only negative to catching Aileen's killer that easily was getting no real leads on the attack. Aileen's notes had given Standish enough to work with, but Eliza being the one to hire the hitmen meant there was no real connection to the attack. And she certainly wasn't going to betray her parents and give up any information.

Standish kept looking to narrow down the terrorist's location and Will decided to get the team out of the hotel to explore around the city while they waited. Though Jai declined and stayed to work with Standish, so the rest of them headed out.

They'd grabbed lunch at a local dive, and walked around for a bit. Frankie feigned annoyance at Will's enthusiasm at taking the time to see the sights, but Susan was there to give her a sister to talk to while the guys acted like the dorks they were. Besides, she didn't really mind. Frankie had always loved to travel and explore new places. She loved Ireland but never really had the time to take it all in, work always taking precedence.

Susan could admit that it was nice to see Ray and Will back on good terms, and therefore she didn't feel like a horrible friend anymore for being with Ray. She could tell Will was still struggling to include Ray in things and talk to him like he used to, but mostly because he'd spent almost a year not doing it. Jai finally got them on Comms two hours later, and they headed back, but not before Will snapped a group selfie on the bridge.

"I'm framing this," Will said.

"You would". Frankie laughed. Susan just smiled and shook her head.

Ray slapped his shoulder and walked ahead to catch up with Susan. Frankie just shook her head, and Will fell into a relaxed step next to her.

—-

* * *

**Bishop Gate Hotel.**

"_Reports came in about a hijacked van. It could be coincidence, but it's likely the vehicle that's going to be used." _Standish told them._ "I'm tracking it now."_

"It lines up with the location we were thinking of." Jai points to a spot on the map that was laid out on the table.

"So the attack is set for the city center of Londonderry." Will confirmed.

"Looks that way. We should get going. I'm going to try help disarm it on site." Jai replied.

"_I've got it on satellite. I'll guide you."_

The group packed the weapons they needed and headed for the SUV.

—

* * *

**Londonderry. City Centre. Late Afternoon.**

Once there, the team was worried they were too late as people were running from the courthouse in fear. The van they were looking for was parked on a side street close by, but Will and Ray had checked it and there wasn't a bomb or anyone left in it, but the evidence showed there had been.

"Guys that's a diversion. Looks like a small bomb meant to scare people. Minimal damage. We need to find the real one, and the IRA's ground team that's here." Jai said from the SUV.

Once the people were outside, more rioting started as police tried to calm the crowd. People were panicked, and as usual, no one was thinking clearly. A couple of little bombs went off around the city nearby to further frighten civilians.

The team knew there was a larger bomb. They wanted casualties and that would happen out here more than a handful of people inside the courthouse. Ray and Susan tried to help get the crowds cleared out, while Jai was able to locate the bomb to a more focused point.

Frankie and Will finally found it in the alley of a building directly across from the courthouse, hidden but with a good length from causing major damage to the civilians rioting outside.

With Jai's help, they managed to disarm it. It certainly wasn't the same level of difficulty that the bomb they'd disarmed in Rome had been.

"Sorta feels like we've done this before." Will commented.

Frankie laughed. " Oh yeah, great times." She just gave a half hearted eye roll as she cut the final wire.

"Well yeah, i mean after that I think you kinda liked me." Will teased.

Frankie laughed. "I...tolerated you more."

"Sure."

She rolled her eyes again.

"Yeah...Jai this isn't going to keep trying to explode right?" Frankie asked, mostly kidding.

"Nope."

"Great."

"Can't say the same for the people out here though."

"On it."

Will and Frankie headed back out into the chaos, though some people had managed to get out and away from the city center. Unfortunately, as they did, the IRA group still managed to set off the final few small bombs outside.

Frankie managed to find another one of the terrorist members and put him down with a few rounds but whirled around at the sound of a small explosion.

Will had been able to help a scared couple to safety before taking the brunt of the force, getting knocked into a cement wall.

"Will?"

Frankie dodged civilians on the way to Will, calling up the team on comms.

"What's going on?" Susan yelled over comms.

"Guys, I put one of theirs down but Will's knocked out. We need some help over here!"

"Shit, is he okay?"

Frankie kneeled down, but as she went to check him, he groaned a little.

"He seems stunned but breathing fine, he's already coming to."

Will opened his eyes to find Frankie above him. He tried to grin, but didn't quite get there.

"He's awake...seems a little dizzy, minus the small gash to the forehead."

"M' fine..." he said, tried to get up.

"Nope." She said, and leaned down to help him up. "Slow."

"You rescuing me this time?"

Frankie gave him a dirty look. "Stop talking."

Susan and Ray took out the final IRA agent and started making their way to them. Frankie dropped Will at the medic station that had arrived, and went to help them round up the men. Susan met them there and stayed with Will.

The rioting had stopped, and the authorities were clearing the civilians out. Three of the men were pronounced dead. One of the ones Frankie had shot managed to survive and was being transferred to a hospital, where MI6 was waiting to take him, as his team was responsible for the incident in London three weeks prior.

—

* * *

**Bishop Gate Hotel. Evening.**

A few hours later, the team was all back at the hotel. Jai went back to the bar for dinner, Susan and Ray had ordered take out on their way in and disappeared into their room once Susan had made sure Will got back to his room okay.

Will knew he was ok, but had been forced to get checked out by the medic anyways. He also knew he could do a better patch up job then what they put on his forehead. Consensus was a mild concussion.

He was about to grab a glass of water and take his aspirin when a knock came on the door.

He opened it to find Frankie, a large take out box in one hand, and two bottles of beer in the other.

"Hey."

"Uh, hi!" Will replied.

"How's the head?" she asked

"My head? Why?" He made a confused face.

"Why, you got knocked out and are slightly concussed." She shakes her head. Men. Granted, she tried to tough it through injuries every time too.

"Really? That's odd...and explains the headache." He still had a look of confusion on his face.

"What?" Frankie frowned. Ok, that wasn't playing it off. Something was wrong.

"Yeah...so um is this room service? Sorry, I didn't ask before."

"What?! Will, it's..." Frankie looked him dead in the eye. Susan said it wasn't that bad so what in the hell ha...Frankie's thoughts trailed off when she noticed Will's mouth. Will was smirking.

"Oh my God, I am going to murder you," Frankie said, glaring.

"Sorry..sorry." Will laughed. "You should've seen your face. You know how your eyebrows do that little thing when you're worried and..."

She punched him in the arm. "I wasn't worried."

"Ow...Of course not." Will smiled. "And hey watch it injured here."

"Your arm's not. And clearly, you're heads fine too." She rolled her eyes.

He shook his head and smiled.

"Is that mine? Wait, did you come to check on me?"

"Don't make a big deal out of it, Susan told me about the concussion. Not supposed to sleep remember."

"I've had plenty of them I know how it works...but thanks."

She rolled her eyes again. "Ok, well I'm hungry, and you can't sleep yet. So since we both need to eat..."

Will moves to the side to let her barge through the door and she sets everything down on the small kitchenette. He helps her unpack the food and grabs the two glasses the hotel had left in the room and sat them on the counter.

"That looks amazing." He said, watching Frankie pull out the spicy corned beef tacos and sides. He poured the Guinness into the glasses.

"When in Ireland." She said.

They took the food and set everything down on the small table in front of the sofa and plopped down. The pair had become comfortable in the last month or so of spending time together and sharing meals and until after Prague, it had been second nature. This is the first time Frankie had shown up to his place (or room in this case) since Prague, and it felt good to have some normalcy back. Will took in the fact that Frankie did, in fact, come to check on him.

They sat in silence for a few minutes while finishing their food.

"Ok, turn that on I'm already bored." Frankie suddenly spoke up. Will could only laugh at her way of filling the silence. He let her pick the show, they ended up on some horrible comedy but they both enjoyed the company. Will also made note that Frankie sat closer than she used to during these things. But he made a mental note not to mention it, and an even bigger note to not stare.

Hours later, Frankie ran through the tests with Will, who seemed perfectly fine. They decided on one more show and argued over which one. Fifteen minutes later and they'd both fallen asleep.

* * *

—

**Bishop Gate Hotel. February 2nd.**

Both spies woke up the next morning, but feeling Frankie tense when she realized her head was resting on his shoulder, Will faked sleep and let her get up and leave. There was no point in making it weird for her. This was the best night he'd had since Prague. He'd give her a hard time about it someday, but for now, he was happy to do as requested and not make things weird.

Frankie's worry about the domesticity of last night didn't last too long. They were friends, they'd done this before, granted she didn't usually fall asleep. She hated that her concern for him was pretty obvious, but she appreciated that other than the light teasing, Will hadn't made it into a big thing. He was learning too, it seemed. And she had wanted to check on him. Seeing him thrown back into a wall was worse for her than before because she'd only assumed he'd been hurt that time in LA, but this time she had to see him actually get hurt. Mild as this was, it could've been worse. Her heart was a traitor to her head lately.

A few hours later, the team boarded a plane home. Once in New York, they all met up with Standish and had some drinks at the dead drop. The mission had been successful and the team was back together again. Maybe Ollerman was still out there, and maybe Frankie wasn't quite ready still to start something new with Will, but as far as he was concerned things were looking good for Team Whiskey.


	8. Chapter 8

**Home of Frankie Trowbridge. February 6.**

Frankie's morning was not going smoothly. She'd had a restless sleep to begin with only to be woken up by a 5:00 Am text from Will saying that they had a meeting at the Dead Drop at 7:30. Why, he hadn't said. She was tempted to text him back and give him a hard time for waking her up, but decided not to. Unfortunately, she couldn't go back to sleep.

Frankie wanted coffee, or more like needed it. Apparently, life was enjoying throwing her for a loop this morning, and the coffee maker wouldn't turn on. She slammed the mug back down, then made a mental note to put a new coffee maker on her list. Maybe she'd finally splurge on that Ninja Coffee Bar she'd eyed in one of Jai's catalogs. Why he had a weird obsession for hanging on to sales catalogs she would never know. So instead of coffee, she settled for some adrenaline. Frankie spent about fifteen minutes going a few rounds with her punching bag she'd set up in the den.

After, she made for a quick shower, got dressed and then headed out the door.

—-

* * *

**The Dead Drop.**

Frankie walked into the bar five minutes late, mostly to see if Will said anything. He liked being on time, or early. Jai had finally put his scanner in place and she refused to complain about the couple extra seconds it took for the door to unlock. She let the door shut behind her, dropped off her coat and looked up to find the team gathered around the table, and she was sure she'd smelled something sweet.

"Hey! Just in time." Will smiled at her as he rounded the corner from the opposite side of the bar.

"What the hell?" She asked, confused.

"Nice." He commented. "It's breakfast. I called it brunch but I guess that's because I woke up at like four."

Frankie rolled her eyes. "You woke me up with that text."

"Sorry, I got excited." He meant it too, she could tell by the apologetic look.

"Great..."

"Come on." Will said, motioning her to the table around the booth.

Jai, Susan, and Standish all sat down and Susan scooted her chair over to give Frankie room.

Susan scooted over, grinning up at her. Frankie was pretty sure everyone was way too happy to be here this morning. Except her. She missed her coffee and her bed. They'd had a mild week before but the weather took a turn back to freezing cold and Frankie hated the cold more than she hated mornings.

But the team's happy attitude was hard to ignore and she just shook her head, biting back a laugh.

"Is this all really necessary. I mean...why?"

"Yes, it is." Will answered, looking offended for only a second. "We're celebrating."

She gives him a curious look.

He nods at Standish. "It's the kid's first mission back in the field this week!"

"Oh yeah!" Standish put his hand up and Jai gave him a high five without even looking at him.

Frankie couldn't help but smile at Standish, who was pretty hyped about it.

"Nice."

"Yes, it is. We've been through a lot."

"Yeah yeah, a girl's gotta eat i guess." She smirked at Will, then smiled at Susan.

Susan then passed her a pitcher of an orange beverage. Frankie was about to pour the juice into the glass but her nose twitched a little at the smell. She eyed Susan with a mischievous look.

"Yeah girl, Mimosas. I told Will if he was going to make us all get up for this there had to be alcohol involved." Susan said

"I like the way you think." Frankie said, smiling. "Though I'm dying for a coffee."

"Isn't that usually the first thing you do upon waking?" Will asked as he walked back to the bar to grab the tray and plates of food.

"Damn things broke. Wouldn't turn on."

"Was it plugged in?" Standish piped in.

Oh if looks could kill. Standish quickly realized his mistake, then Frankie shot him a very hard glare.

"That was...I was totally kidding. I know you're very smart and I think you're awesome."

Susan snorted. Frankie smirked, winning this one with ease.

"It was old." Jai said. "It's was making terrible sounds."

"How would...yeah never mind." She stopped herself. Bugs. Jai was getting better about doing it, but he had them turned on for over a week after Standish's attack from Ollerman. Frankie didn't hold it against him, he needed to feel some control over their safety after that.

"Give me some of that." Jai said. Susan slid the pitcher.

Frankie couldn't really remember the last time she sat down just to eat with a group of people.

Will brought over the pancakes and plate of bacon and eggs. As he got to Frankie, he plopped down the pancake on the main plate and the bacon on a smaller one. She gave him another look of surprise as he moved on to Susan.

"What? You said you didn't do eggs." He said, pausing his serving to answer Frankie's silent question.

"You listened? You never listen to me." She laughed.

"Hey, I listen! I may not always do what you say...but I do listen."

"Yeah our man Will here is a great listener." Standish chimed in.

Everyone eyed Standish.

"Sorry."

Will smiled at Frankie, but she looked up to give him a teasing smirk.

"Well then if that's the case, pancakes are fine but if you really want to win me over, then I prefer waffles."

Will inwardly did a happy dance. He tried to school his features. _Win her over? _

"I'm making a mental note now. I've got a waffle maker."

Frankie gave him one last partial eye roll and picked up her fork.

The rest of the team is staring at the two of them and Will catches their eye.

"Okay if you two are done with that cute exchange can the rest of us please eat?" Jai said, smiling though.

Frankie looked away, she was well trained enough to hold back a blush, but a team of spies wouldn't miss her light embarrassment. Will was too happy this morning to be embarrassed.

Susan just raised her eyebrows as Will finished dishing out the food to the others.

"Where's Ray?" Frankie asked.

"Meeting with the director over this week's mission." Susan said.

"We're supposed to go in at 9:30 to go over our next assignment." Will added.

Frankie nodded.

Will squeezed in next to Frankie, trying to respect her space as much as possible. After their exchange in front of the team, he expected she'd try to keep her distance, but she clearly didn't mind the closeness. It reminded him of the Frankie the day before all hell broke loose. The entire way home from the Alps, Frankie hadn't shied away at their closeness on the flight home. She'd easily accepted his offer for yet another dinner in at his place to go over the case files, though they both knew case files had turned into excuses for spending time with each other. It had only been a few weeks since they got back, but Frankie was quickly returning to that happier Frankie, and Will was glad to see it. Four days ago, she'd even fallen asleep on his shoulder on a hotel room sofa. He told himself it wasn't a big deal, but it kind of was.

—

* * *

**Dead Drop. Pool Room. **

The team had finished their breakfast and split off. Will had put some stuff away and then went up to his office for a bit, and Jai and Standish went to their _batcave_.

"So..." Susan started, pausing to look at Frankie.

"So what?" Frankie mumbled, not even looking up from her computer as Susan topped of the glasses of their mimosas.

"So...I've let it slide for weeks now. You still haven't told me what is going on with you two."

Frankie sighed.

"I did tell you, I told you nothing."

"That in there wasn't nothing. Openly flirting instead of us just overhearing on comms?"

Frankie shot her a glare, but her heart wasn't in it. "Ok, that was not flirting."

"Oh sure."

"You two have been different since Prague."

"Not really." Frankie shrugged.

Susan gave her the _look_. That same one she'd given her before she talked about feelings and fate. Frankie chewed on her lip. She knew Susan wasn't letting go this time. In the past, she'd always spilled to her. Susan had that thing about her that made people actually want to talk to her. Which given how little Frankie liked to talk about things, really showed how good Susan was at it.

"Girl, you spilled all those other times. I know something is up. So?"

Frankie let out a deep breath, and hoped to God and all other deities that Jai did not have them bugged. And that Will was still in his office.

"Fine...wekissedinPrague." Frankie blurted out in a whisper, words running together.

"Sorry what?" Susan asked, her mouth forming a little "O". She knew what Frankie said, so Frankie just paused and rolled her eyes at her.

"I'm not repeating it."

"Fine...Oh my god that's great."

Frankie sighed heavily.

"It was right? I mean, that doesn't sound like a bad thing."

"I..I mean it was good at the time...great even." Frankie smiled at the memory, despite herself.

"Oohhh. But you aren't..."

"No. I told you, Will and I had decided to stay colleagues a long time ago. What happened...it shouldn't have."

"Oh Frankie, what was it some kind of heat of the moment kiss?"

"Not really...I mean we both wanted it at the time. But it was a bad idea."

Susan shook her head. She couldn't figure these two out sometimes, and she was excellent at reading people.

"Seriously, what happened."

Frankie cocked her head to the side and gave Susan a "duh" face.

"We got attacked by Ollerman's idiot hitmen and then Will got Standish's message. You know the rest."

"Ohhh so he called us right after...oh that makes sense."

Frankie shook her head. "Can we be done with this conversation please?"

"Nope. I want to know why you aren't up there with Will "helping" him with paperwork. Why you're still telling me you two are just friends."

"Because we can't do our jobs and do this...whatever this thing is between us."

"Because?"

"One second after we did, things went horribly wrong. Like they always do. We lost focus and Standish was stabbed. Before that, we got interrupted by Ollerman taking you guys hostage here. So you tell me, but doesn't seem like we're supposed to start anything."

"Standish was stabbed whether you guys did or didn't. Frankie you couldn't have stopped that from happening no matter where your focus was."

"I know. You sound like Will."

"Yes well surprisingly Will is right sometimes."

That got a smile out of Frankie.

"I know. It's just..Ugh I don't know."

"See you're running out of excuses chica."

Frankie sighed louder. Yeah..."

Susan smiled. "Well then my work here is done."

She grabbed her mimosa and went into the main area of the bar.

Frankie wanted to be mad at her, mad at herself too. She heard Will's footsteps coming down the stairs in the other room and took a breath. It really was getting harder and harder to keep pushing him away.

She walked into the main area.

"Ready?" Will asked.

"Yeah." Frankie pulled in her coat.

Frankie smiled at the sight of him coming over with two to-go cups of coffee.

"That's got my name on it." She joked, grinning.

"Always does." He smiled, handing her the cup. He walked ahead of her as she took a sip, and held the door until she joined him.

She smiled, _so he did pay attention_, Frankie laughed to herself. He knew exactly how to make her coffee, just the way she liked it. She wanted to cringe at the idea of him knowing her so well, but her traitor heart liked it.


	9. Chapter 9

***_Hey guys, here's next chapter! sorry its so late! i am not loving how the dialogue turned out but wanted to get this out there. if you see major errors, message me and ill fix it! my editor is still acting up!_**

**_Thank you to all my reviewers, including the guest reviewer i couldn't message back. Your comments meant a lot! I'm my hardest critic, but i expect honestly from people about my writing. So when the feedback is good, i really am Happy people liked it enough to write a comment_!***

**Ray's Office. New York**

Ray looked up from his desk when he heard Frankie and Will entering his office, laughing about something as Frankie tilted up her to-go mug and finished off the last of her coffee. As they took a seat across from his desk, Frankie noticed Ray staring at them.

"What's with the kicked puppy look?" Frankie asked.

Will shook his head at her bluntness, amused.

"I missed team breakfast." Ray pouted.

"Oh God" she rubbed her forehead, wishing she hadn't asked.

"Susan saved you some," Will said flatly.

Ray laughed. "That was nice."

"Can we get to work now?" Frankie rolled her eyes at the boys and took a seat.

"You're going to Lebanon."

"Interesting." She commented.

"Yeah, three days ago there was another K&R in Beirut. This is the third kidnapping there in a month that seems to have a similar MO."

"Wait, doesn't the bureau have specific teams that handle K&R cases overseas?" Frankie asked.

"Not usually our thing." Will agreed.

"Yeah we do, but the vics are important diplomats' families and these last few cases have been different. They've been getting the usual ransom calls and had their insurance pay it as usual, but right after their families were released the diplomats were murdered in their hotels by a sniper. The local police found no evidence anywhere surrounding the hotel afterward.

"That's odd," Will said.

"Or terrible police work." Frankie commented bluntly.

"Yeah. Anyway, usually diplomats, government officials, and businessmen aren't unusual because these guys typically target the wealthy."

"Right. Except for the murder." Frankie said.

"Yeah. Doesn't make sense." Will added.

"Nope, if you're in the K&R business, you don't kill the target."

"No, you don't. Kidnap and Ransom is big money business. They usually always let them go once they get their money unless something goes wrong. And they definitely don't kill the one paying them. Otherwise, their credibility would go out the window and insurances wouldn't pay up."

Right." Ray agreed.

"So, could this be political?" Frankie asked.

"Yeah, it's a possibility." Ray said.

"So, what's our angle?" Will asked.

"The most recent victim, our US Diplomat, Jacob Timmons, he went down to Beirut early with his family so they could have a longer vacation. But he was going to be meeting with two other diplomats from the UK and Spain for a conference. Not sure what for, classified I guess. The other two families are already on a flight to Lebanon now."

"So we can't pull them out?" Will asked.

"I was told they were going to try and stop them at the arrival gate but only if it can be done discreetly. The embassy said they don't want to create panic, and they only want to send a small team in. So, our team is gonna go down. If the local police don't get there to catch them at the gate, we need to make contact with them at the hotel. Blend in and be ready to intercept any kidnappings."

"They don't want to stop them at the arrival gates." Frankie corrected, somewhat annoyed.

Will looked up at her, but agreed.

"She's right. They want these guys caught, so these families are bait now. I don't like it."

"We weren't given a choice. Three diplomats were killed this month. Lebanon had a problem with K&R before but not like this. They need help. Our government wants this solved ASAP."

Will and Frankie looked at one another. It's not like they could question their orders right now. The Ollerman incident had them under a watchful eye for now, and Ray was right. The men behind the attacks needed to be stopped. Besides, even if they kept these diplomats from going to the conference and sent them back home, someone else would just get targeted later.

* * *

**Beirut Lebanon. Bureau Jet. Feb 7th.**

"Wow," Susan commented, looking out the window.

Places like these were hidden gems if only there wasn't such a strong presence of crime and extremist activity on the outskirts of the city.

"Great isn't it."

"Been here?" Standish asked.

"Years ago, on a mission with one of my units."

"Think we got an ocean view?" Standish asked.

"Be lucky if we get above the second floor, and definitely not a room with a view," Jai said

"Nice."

"True," Ray said. "This place is always booked full. Checked us in already. Standish you and Jai are room 204."

"I'm surprised you came. Isn't your job you know..to be the liaison?"

"Wasn't going to. But I asked, and since it was your first one back they let me come."

Ray didn't mind doing whatever job he was put into, considering how bad he messed up before. But he did miss being in the field.

Frankie rolled her eyes at the boys. Susan just shook her head and smiled.

Ray nodded at Susan, "We'll be in 301, Frankie you have suite 303, and Will you're on the other side of her. Yours is across from the Saurez's room. Ours from the Taylors'." He looked at Susan. "This place is great! I mean, there's a hot tub in our room!"

Susan covered her face in her hands at the words "our room" as everyone else just stared at them. You'd think she'd be used to Ray being so enthusiastic over their relationship being public, but it was still taking time.

"How'd you swing four separate rooms?" Will asked, changing the subject a bit. Susan was grateful.

"Told them it was important we had eyes on both families' rooms."

Will squinted his eyes.

"And...Casey likes those little candies we got from Ireland. I sent him a little basket."

"That's weird." Frankie commented.

"Whatever."

* * *

**Kempinski Summerland Hotel**

The team had a quick briefing on the plane and over comms, but once they arrived at the hotel they were sticking to communication via comms for the majority of the day.

Susan, Ray, Frankie, and Will's covers were all as vacationers, while Jai and Standish's covers were tech guys here for a conference. They'd looked up all the events going on in the city and a software developer's company was hosting a large conference at a nearby convention center, giving Standish and Jai easy covers for the trip.

Once the families were all noted as secure in their rooms that night, they all returned to their own rooms. Will would take the first watch in a little while to stay awake and keep an eye on them.

—

An hour later after they went their separate ways, he came out of the bathroom from his shower in just his sleep pants and a towel in hand to find Frankie in his room, laptop open on the desk.

"Uh, what are you doing?" He asked, mildly amused.

"Waiting on you." She replied, not even looking up at him. "You got those nice headphones. The noise cancelling ones. I know you couldn't even hear me when we were on the plane."

"Okay?" He was confused.

"I need them."

"Okay?" Yeah, he was definitely confused.

"Ray's better at the office. This whole traveling with us thing, totally not necessary."

Will was still waiting for her to explain further, as this still wasn't making total sense to him.

Will went to grab his shirt from his suitcase, reaching around her at the table to get it. Frankie had purposely been keeping herself engrossed with her laptop since Will walked into the room, knowing full well he was shirtless. It wasn't like her to be phased by anyone, but with things between her and Will being so...tense since Prague, she didn't want to risk losing focus. Nor would she ever admit it out loud that it got to her. She was waiting for Will to give her a hard time about this, like before. She wondered if he would.

"Are you going to explain or..?" he urged.

"Ray. Susan. Thin Walls." She rolled her eyes.

"Aghh... I didn't need to know that."

"Yeah well, I didn't need to hear it."

"This is a five-star hotel, how'd you even hear it."

"We're spies Will. It's not like I really care..but.."

"Yeah. Knowing versus hearing." He made a face.

"I think I missed it when they were trying to hide it from you." she said.

"By the way, you still owe me for that." Will stated. He threw his shirt over his shoulder and started digging around in his duffle.

"What?!" She looked up at him quickly, but regretted it when she realized he still hadn't finished dressing. Then decided she didn't regret it at all. He had that damn smirk on his face over their damn bet.

She hated how much Confident Will got to her, but oh he did. Frankie thought when she first met him that she had him pegged. He was just an emotional, too nice guy and she did not want to like him. But of course, she liked him. And suddenly not long into their first meeting, Will surprised her with his confident, strong and sexy side and she really had not expected that from him.

The fact that they worked so well together in the field and out of it, that they got along so well despite their fighting, it shook her. It's what made her nervous to mess this up by starting something with him. She could make excuses, but in the end, it wasn't really the saving the world part she was scared of messing up. It was losing their partnership, losing what they had now if all this went sideways. When she just had herself to rely on, things were easier. Now, if she messed things up with Will, she'd lose her partner. Then she'd feel like bolting, and she couldn't do that without leaving behind several other people she found herself caring for. Her question was if things didn't work between them, could they be adult enough to continue to be partners? Could they ignore their connection and be just friends once that spark was turned into a flame? She was so close to being willing to find out.

"You said Ray would be the one to blab. I said Susan would spill to me first. Clearly, she did, so I won!"

"Oh please. Doesn't count. Jai caught them, so she had to."

He laughed. "Uh, Not how that works."

He paused. Laughed a little more.

"We're bad at these bets." He said.

"Terrible."

"Tie?"

"No way!"

She grabbed his headphones that he had laid out on the table.

"If I say that these being mine for the remainder of this mission is the prize, will you concede? Since I was taking them anyways."

"Yeah, sure. Also, That couch pulls out if the headphones don't work." he nodded at the sofa.

"Yeah, these will be fine." She held them up.

"I said the couch pulled out, not that you'd be the one taking it."

Frankie sighed. Staying overnight accidentally when Will was concussed was different than purposely staying in the same room.

"I don't think your back would survive old man." She joked it off.

He gave a mock hurt look. "Hey! My back is as strong as they come."

"Right yeah, sorry that was just your knee."

He threw his towel at her.

"Hey!"

He laughed.

He smiled, turning back to the bathroom with his T-shirt in hand.

She let herself sneak another glance at him.

"Saw that!"

Frankie shot him a glare to cover her slight blush. Wait what? She does not blush!

Frankie grinned though when he closed the door to the bathroom. She was planning to take her laptop and go back to her room. She was going to order food and a glass of wine. But she liked drinking with Will, and she missed their nights in.  
Besides, two people keeping an ear out for potential trouble was better than one. Not that the kidnappers were going to take them from their beds. Surely they'd wait until the family was out, and the wife and kids separated from the husband.

A few minutes later, Will came back out to find Frankie on the sofa, tv on and a menu on the table.

"Hungry?" She asked.

He just looked at her.

"What?" She asked.

"Nothing. And Yeah, aren't I always?"

She grinned and slid the menu over to him so he could help her decide.

He wondered if she was purposely driving him crazy. Most likely. She kept doing all these little domestic things that made him wish so badly that she was ready for whatever came next.

Will sat down while she channel flipped, until the knock on the door with their food came a bit later. Wine too, he noticed with a smile.

"So I'm surprised word didn't get back to the men here about the murder of Timmons." Frankie said.

"Well, unless reporters got wind of it somehow, they wouldn't yet. The embassy is keeping it under wraps and the investigation takes a while before they release names."

"True. And the Timmons family?"

"Ray said they took them into protective custody until they can get home, just in case."

She nodded.

It was close to two hours later when she finally left his room to get some sleep.

* * *

**Room 301.**

"Hey Hey, got the ice." Ray said. He sat the bucket down and put the extra bottle of wine down in it.

Susan laughed and smiled, wondering why he was so excited about ice. But she brushed it off because he got excited over a lot. Easily.

"Um..so is this Will and Frankie thing new?"

Susan almost choked on her wine.

"What?!"


	10. Chapter 10

*See AO3 for author notes! theres a link to this missions song choice. Apologies for any errors, it was a very long editing processing and a tiring few days:)

Cont...

* * *

**Kempinski Summerland Hotel.**

"What?!" Susan whisper-yelled.

"Well, we were the experts at sneaking around and I just saw Frankie leaving Will's room. And it's like, late ya know?"

"Oh Ray, no. Besides, experts? Will knew the whole time!"

"Oh, okay. You sure?"

"Yeah." she smiled. "Look, I know nothing is happening...yet. This isn't uncommon, they hang out a lot."

"Alright...But how cool would that be, I mean we could totally double d..."

"Nope!" She cut him off. "Stop right there. And don't you go blabbing about what you saw to anyone or I will not sleep with you again. We need to respect their privacy. Like Will did ours."

"Relax, I wasn't gonna say anything...well other than to you. Besides, I wouldn't talk about Frankie to the others, she'd find out and she would murder me."

Susan just shook her head.

* * *

**Kempinski Summerland Hotel. February 8th.**

The four teammates met up in the lobby just before the families came downstairs around 8:00 AM. The diplomats had a conference to get to, leaving their families to do their own thing.

Ray made his way to Jai and Standish, where they had their laptops pulled up and Standish was getting linked into the hotel security cameras.

Susan and Frankie casually followed the Saurez family down to the pool. They got lucky this week, as it was about 10 degrees over average the last few days and at 75 degrees the lightly heated pool was just warm enough the two Suarez kids were happy to jump in. Susan and Frankie headed for the pool bar, and grabbed two mimosas and breakfast to blend in.

Will had eyes on the Taylors, who'd decided on breakfast inside at the cafe. The two teenage girls, roughly fourteen and sixteen, were more interested in their phones it seemed then hanging out. Sad really, with all the cool amenities offered. After about thirty minutes, Will followed them out to the pool. Most guests this time of year didn't bother with the pool. The Taylors seemed the same, as they grabbed towels and headed to the hot tub instead. He caught a glimpse of Frankie and Susan on Suarez watch, pretending to be interested in their own conversation. He loved how much the two women in his life got along. He wasn't the only one pushing past Frankie's walls, and Susan had done so much faster than anyone on the team over the last year, save for Jai.

Will also couldn't get past the sight of Frankie in relaxed spring-like clothing. It reminded him of France. Despite their problems there, he looked back on that hour with fondness. Now, the navy and white sundress today made him imagine them out on a beach stroll...then he quickly kicked that image out of his head, he needed to slow that train of thought down. Even if she ever decided she was ready, he knew better than to think they'd jump into long strolls on a beach and romantic vacations. But there were things about her that he was surprised by, underneath her walls. So he couldn't count it out. Like her helping get the Dead Drop back. Making friends with Standish's mom. Not throwing her walls back up and getting defensive with him when she decided she wasn't ready for something but instead sat down and told him why she wasn't. Staying last night for dinner when she easily could've gone to her own room. So maybe having far off thoughts about their future wasn't so bad. He just had to refrain from his usual habit of jumping in the deep end too quickly.

Later both families went to lunch around the same time. There was an excellent restaurant inside the hotel and both Will and Ray came down and grabbed a table with the women. Frankie scooted over to make room for him. Ray gave them the information Standish had on every guest at the hotel. They had a list of people that were deemed suspicious, but upon further search, no one really panned out.

After a few minutes, they all jumped at the sound of a smoke alarm coming from the kitchen. Suddenly it got louder as the door opened, a few waiters came out apologizing. The guests jumped up and they could see a small amount of smoke in the kitchen. They all decided to clear out just in case, everyone quickly making for the exit.

Except the team. They'd all jumped up and immediately knew there was a problem.

"I've got eyes on the Suarezs." Will said after a second. He and Ray darted toward their direction as Frankie went after the Taylors, Susan looking around the restaurant trying to locate the source of the small kitchen fire. Frankie however kept running into foot traffic, a sight line to the Taylors lost.

"Standish! I need eyes on the Taylors, now!"

"Okay I'm on it." He brought up all cameras.

"Standish?!" Frankie tried again.

"Sorry! God their security cameras suck! Back on now, I got a group of three men leading them out the exit, it'll be on your left side once you get into the front lobby. It leads to the delivery entrance toward the back of the main drive."

Frankie pushed her way forward, took a left through the single door exit then suddenly stopped at the sound of tires screeching. A food delivery van was leaving the hotel fast, the door sliding shut. She had her gun drawn but they were out of range of a good tire shot.

"Dammit!" She yelled. She headed back inside the hotel. She slid her gun back into place before entering the lobby, the receptionist giving her a suspicious look but she just smiled and nodded.

* * *

It had only taken a short time for the small kitchen fire to be put out. Only minutes to invite customers back into the restaurant. Some didn't come back, but most did. This definitely wasn't an accident or coincidence. They'd purposely set off a distraction. Someone in that kitchen was involved.

Frankie and Will met in the small conference room downstairs where Standish was working.

"Anything?" Frankie huffed out impatiently. She was beyond frustrated at losing them.

"Yeah. There's an assistant chef. No criminal records, seemed clean but he's on camera as the one who started the grease fire."

"Okay, so lets go pay him a visit." Frankie said to Will, who nodded.

* * *

The two of them had the man tied up in a back storage room. He'd gotten nervous as soon they had a waiter send for him. Once he came out into the hall, they'd dragged him into the small space without attracting much attention. Ray and Susan had gone to make sure the Suarez family was still safe, but it was likely they would be just fine since the other family was already taken.

"So, unless you want to deal with her." Will nodded toward Frankie, "...I'd tell us who you're working for and why." Will said.

"Man, what? Working for...I don't know what..."

"There's a missing family out there, and it's your fault!" She said. "You started that fire on purpose. So give us a who and a why before I start breaking things." She stopped forward, causing him to lean as far back as he could."

"What? No, I mean.." He paused "look some guy about my age came into the kitchen with the food delivery we got shipped in. We had a conversation while unpacking. Then he started going on about rich people here, which I totally understood ya know? None of them are friendly either, and I knew how he felt. Anyways, before he left he paid me three hundred dollars just to set the smoke alarm off! Said it'd be funny and I thought he was playing a prank. I knew where the extinguisher was, we all do. I didn't think anyone would get hurt. My girlfriends pregnant, so yeah I took that money and did it. I didn't know it was a set up I swear!"

"Easy, we believe you." Will said.

Will looked to Frankie and she reluctantly lowered her gun.

"Are you going to turn me in? I'm really sorry..but I really can't afford jail, she needs my income. Least til I can get her to come to the states with me."

Frankie sighed. "Depends on how helpful you are...besides you're in luck, no police can be involved yet. What you can do tell us exactly what you remember about the guy and the delivery company used."

The kid nodded and they sent him off to see Standish to give him a description and details.

"Taylor is gonna get out of the meeting soon. If they planned this, they're gonna wait to call until he's back in the hotel." Will said.

"Do we make contact with him?" She asked.

"Good question. Yeah. Just carefully."

Frankie nodded.

* * *

A half-hour later, Ian Taylor got back the hotel, part one of the conference was over. Standish had eyes on him via camera, and he appeared to be calling someone several times.

"I got Taylor in the hotel lobby, he's been making phone calls. Wild guess that he's trying to reach his family."

"Okay. We're going to head up soon and intercept."

"Looks like he's already headed to his room."

Will and Frankie stopped by to give Susan and Ray a heads up and then headed down the hall to Taylor's room. Once they could hear him yelling through the door, they knew he'd just gotten the call. Too late to warn him ahead of time then. Taylor went quiet briefly, listening to their demands. Will and Frankie entered the room slowly with the key they'd lifted off of the wife's purse after she'd been taken, noticing Ian hanging up the phone.

Taylor jumped and looked up in shock, and then he was ready to lunge.

"Eash, easy!" Will reached slowly into his pocket and pulled out his badge."FBI."

Taylor took a breath to calm himself, but didn't quite let go of the suspicion.

"I don't understand." He said.

"We know about the call you just got and we're here to help. Your family will be safe." Will said.

"Look, I know how this whole business works. We were even trained on it briefly at the embassy. But my family, they need me to do what the'd guys said. No training prepares you for this. I've got to get that call made. Wire the money. No cops. No...FBI I'd think."

"We know. That's why we don't look like agents right now. You're going to make the call, go ahead and set up the money transfer for their release." Frankie said, pointing at her and Will's civilian attire.

"So why is the FBI here already. We're not American either."

"Because you're not the first to have this happen recently, actually you're the third. And it's a set..."

"What?" Ian interrupted.

"We're here because of one of our own diplomats, Jacob Timmons. This happened to his family just a few days ago. But they did let Timmons family go."

"Timmons. He was on the guest list for the conference."

"Yeah, he was."

"That's why he wasn't there..."

"He wasn't there because he's dead." Frankie said bluntly.

"What?"

"As we said, this is a setup. They'll let your family go and then someone is going to kill you."

"if you knew already, why didn't you stop this."

"We tried. They were smart, set up a distraction so no one in the hotel would see." Will told him.

"Why would they want us dead? This conference, it's not controversial or anything."

"We don't think it's related to your conference. The first diplomat who died wasn't here for that conference."

"So what do I do? I just want my family back."

"You will, just do what you planned on doing but know we are here with our team to make sure you all stay alive."

* * *

**Beirut, Lebanon.**

Taylor had made the call to his insurance, setting up the wire transfer. It would be ready to go in an hour.

During that time, Standish had found the delivery van which had been stolen from the original drivers. It was left at a small warehouse downtown. Frankie had left with Jai to look into it. Will stayed back to stick close to Taylor and Ray was updating Casey on their current plan.

"Will?" Frankie called out over comms.

"Hey, you guys find that van?"

"Found the van, and better yet we found the driver."

"He dead?" Standish chimed in.

"Not yet. He's got a lovely gunshot wound, not from my gun by the way, but he'll live. We're gonna send him to the hospital..."

"...after you question him" Will finished.

She smirked on her end of the comms. "Yep. We'll be in touch in a few minutes."

"Confident."

"Mmm."

Jai shook his head, amused. Frankie turned back toward the driver.

"So who hired you?" Frankie asked.

The heavily accented man replied with a "No."

"Speaks English. So, a _no_ isn't going to work for us." Jai said. Sitting on the edge of the van.

Frankie kneeled down closer to him. "So, let's try this again." She kept the safety on the gun but pressed the end of it against his side where the wound was. He yelled out in pain.

"Okay, okay."

Jai smiled at how easy that was.

"We want names."

"Don't know names. No one tells. Just code name for our leader, but boss don't come around. He hires a few of us, mostly the men are different each time but two or three of us. We get paid at drop off."

Frankie looked at Jai. This was different. This wasn't an organized group of kidnappers. Someone was orchestrating the whole thing from behind the scenes.

"So why were you shot and left in a van?" Frankie asked.

"I..we don't hurt no one, not really! We take them, we get paid. But the girl, she got smart with our leader. He hit her and told her to shut up cause her papa was gonna die if not. All I did...I just told him we didn't do that. We don't hurt them like that. Then he said I was liability."

"So someone knows what our mystery man is doing."

"What?"

"No one gets hurt? People are dying! Every one of these husbands and fathers that you've been using for a payday? They're dead."

"No, we don't..."

"You don't. But you work for someone who does. Now, the leader of your group. Give us whatever name he used and a description. Then we'll send you to the hospital."

After he talked, they heard the ambulance pull up. Frankie and Jai left him zip-tied, and Ray had tipped off the police about the stolen van that was involved in a kidnapping. This guy was going to have a nice escort to the hospital.

* * *

**Kempinski Summerland Hotel**

Frankie met Will in his room, Ray and Susan came in after. Standish had dug further once the driver gave them information on their leader and they got a name. They might not be able to pin down the location of the family being held hostage, but they were able to access the leader's records.

They put Standish and Jai on speaker.

"So?

"The leader of the group taking the family is Elias Bassil. His family is from Lebanon but he was a US citizen by the time he was eight, moved there with his mother, the father was killed in another Lebanon city not far from here during terrorist bombings. He joined the army at eighteen, was stationed overseas for years. But he's not a good guy. Lots of write-ups before he left. But absolutely no sniper experience.

What about his unit?" Susan asked.

"Yeah way ahead of you. So most of the guys are retired on US soil or have moved up in rank and are still with the army. All but one. Travis Holt. He was discharged a few years ago."

"Why?" Will asked.

"Conduct unfit I think. So um...his wife and two kids were Lebanese. He must've met them during one of his assignments. She worked at another luxury hotel close by."

"And?" Frankie encouraged.

"So ten years ago, he came to Beirut on leave to spend time with his family. But they were killed during a kidnapping gone wrong. No details were given. He went back to the army, got in fights. Apparently was showing real aggressive behavior to the higher-ups and was dismissed."

"That's got to be our guy. This isn't political. It's some attempt at revenge."

"Yeah but like why put other families through this? And why is he killing the diplomats?" Standish asked.

"Good question. It makes more sense to kill the guys that run these kidnap and ransom scams."

Susan looked at them. "Maybe self-hatred. He obviously has severe trauma from the incident and isn't mentally stable. He could blame himself and is in a way, killing himself over and over again instead." she answered.

"I mean that's a stretch, but believable." Will said.

* * *

Frankie, Will, Susan, and Jai quietly headed back to Taylor's room. The money had been transferred. Taylor insisted they let him talk to his family. After he hung up Will knew they had to act quickly now.

"He's a sniper so he's around here somewhere. Frankie, you and Susan and Ray go out and search the buildings and any spot with a vantage point to this room."

"What are you going to do?" she asked.

Will guided Taylor over to Jai. "Take him out of here." Will grabbed a pair of extra reading glasses lying on the table and put them on. The glasses we're similar to Taylor's regular glasses. The two men also had a similar build.

"What are you doing?" Frankie asked again.

"Jai, go take Taylor out of here, I'm going to stay in here and be him."

Jai did as requested and Susan followed him out after telling Will to be careful.

Will reached for his bulletproof vest in his bag he'd brought into the room, making Frankie wonder if this trade wasn't already part of Will's plan. He put it on under the suit jacket.

Frankie shook her head. "I don't like this."

"Tough."

"That vest won't help if it's a head shot."

You'll find him first. Trust me."

Trust isn't the issue here."

It's so cute that your worried about me."

"Oh shut up." She said, giving a half smile. But that wasn't a denial.

Frankie put the extra gun Jai brought her in her holster and went to the door to catch up with the others.

She turned back to him.

"Will?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't get killed." She said, smiling but also serious.

He smiled

* * *

After getting Taylor to a safe spot downstairs, Jai went to help Standish flesh out the kidnappers location. They'd managed to get an ID on the vehicle they used once they dumped the delivery van. Security cameras gave them a general location, and Ray called it in but told them to sit tight until the family was released.

Will was acting the part of a worried family man, pacing slightly in front of the laptop on Taylor's desk. He kept mostly his back to the window and occasionally his side profile, knowing if the sniper had researched his target then seeing Will directly would set the plan off. As soon as the video call came through to Will, well Taylor, he knew they needed to move. He gave the go-ahead for Susan, Ray, and Frankie to move out.

Ray confirmed with Standish that the family was released into one of the side streets in the city. The kidnappers kept their guns on them until the family rounded a corner, getting to a spot where there were taxis and the mother held up her hand waiting. Once they were in public view and out of sight of the kidnappers, they were signaled to move in. The police had the kidnappers in custody within a minute.

It was about two minutes after the video came through that Will noticed the laser light coming through.

"Frankie." Will said as casually as he could, "Try the southeast side wing of the hotel. Roof."

"I'm there now. Just got eyes on Holt, so move Will."

"Not until you're closer."

Frankie wanted to argue but she also knew to do her job. Will as casually as possible kept putting himself out of an easy range for Holt.

Once he glanced out and followed the line to the roof, saw Frankie closing in, he darted behind the sofa as the shot came into the glass.

Holt jumped in his spot seeing his target jump out of the way, knowing he somehow had been made. He went to get up and then heard Frankie's final steps, he turned his rifle on her but she was quicker and put a round in his leg, sending him to the ground and dropping his gun. Once over the initial surprise, he reached for his gun but Frankie stepped on his hand.

"Yeah, I wouldn't." She said, pointing the gun at his head.

She kicked the gun away from his immediate reach with her other foot. "Target down." She said into her comms.

Susan was on her in minutes and they put the zip-ties on. Will arrived a couple minutes later.

"Go ahead, kill me." Holt said.

"Nah...too easy. You're going to answer some questions first."

He stayed silent.

"Your guys are caught. Your army buddy, he's not all that loyal. Look we know about your family. So why would you want to put others through that?"

"It wasn't about them."

"No? So you let them live but took away fathers and husbands. That's not right either."

"It's their own fault."

"It's yours, you mean." Susan said.

"NO! It's theirs, his! Stupid rich diplomats who only care about themselves, and their own families. Taylor this biggest of one of all."

"Help us understand."

"You think my family was supposed to be kidnapped, you think I was a target? Please. I'm a soldier and my wife just worked at the hotel to make ends meet. To support our family. We weren't rich, were we? No. My girls were innocent. I came back here to meet up with them, but when I got there they were gone! You want to know what actually happened. They took the wrong family. Ten years ago mine just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time." He took a breath, then continued. "You want to know who's responsible? You should ask Taylor."

"What's Taylor...it was his family?" Susan asked, but it was more of a statement.

"He was here before. Vacationing. His family went to the beach, and he went to. Then he got a ransom call, and you know what he did? Hung up! He hung up, probably chalked it up to a prank, all because his family was sitting right in front of him. I got a call later. My wife had to give them my number. They told me what happened but said they still wanted their money. They tried to get money from me instead, they couldn't back out apparently. But I didn't have the money. I tried to buy time. I got thirty minutes. I made calls, I did whatever I could do but it was too late. By the time my army buddy had tracked the location, they'd blown the place up and left them to burn alive."

Frankie looked at Will. The situation was horrible. But unfortunately, nothing could be done for him when the victim turned into a murderer.

"Turn around." Will said.

"You killed three other men." Frankie told him.

"They deserved it, they're all the same."

"No, they didn't. They were your target run. Your practice." Will said.

"Funny thing about that is, if Taylor was your target all along, all those practice runs are what did you in. You brought attention to yourself. Stupid, if you ask me."

Will shook his head. They handed him over to the agents waiting for him at the hotel entrace.

* * *

**Hotel Lobby. 5:00PM.**

"Well done you guys." Will said.

"I'm so happy to be back, man that felt good." Standish said, grinning.

"We're happy to have you here." Susan replied, squeezing his shoulders.

"So, our flight doesn't leave until late morning. Taylor was reunited with his family. They're getting checked out for minor cuts and bruises. They made a decision to be escorted back to the airport, and the rest of the conference was cancelled out of respect for Timmons. Looks like our covers are officially over. So you know, we can go do whatever. Have fun. Use the jacuzzi!" Ray said, laughing.

"Frankie, there's a spa. Doesn't close for another hour!" Susan said. She handed her a brochure for the Resense spa.

"Oh I'm so in." Frankie replied, surprising the team.

"Hey what about us..." Ray started to ask.

"No way, girls only." Susan cut him off.

Susan left with Frankie hot on her heels to go change.

The guys all looked at each other. "I feel like we should be used to this." Will said. Susan and Frankie has a history of leaving them in the dust and go do their own thing.

"Well...I guess there's the bar if anyone is up for some day drinking?" Standish said.

Ray raised his hand.

* * *

**Dead Drop. February 9th.**

Susan and Frankie had made a girls evening in Beirut. The spa had been perfect. Then the team all had dinner at the restaurant downstairs before turning in for the night, exhausted.

They got back to the Dead Drop the next evening. Susan left pretty early to meet one of her sisters, Ray went to his office to do reports, and Standish and Jai went to tinker with stuff in their bat cave. Frankie and Will played a round of pool before Frankie decided to call it quits and told Will she was heading home. They said goodnight and Will planned on getting home and throwing in that gourmet frozen pizza he'd bought days ago.

* * *

**Will's Apartment.**

Will was pulling out the box, about to open it when there's a knock at the door. He moved slowly to it, a little suspicious. He opened it a little, but was met with a familiar face and smiled a little, opening the door the rest of the way.

"Hi," Frankie said. "Brought dinner."

"Um hi. What..."

"Well, successful missions that go pretty smoothly for us need celebrating I guess."

Will stepped out of the way as she barged through with a sack of Chinese food.

"Chinese huh?"

"I figured we could get a do-over."

"A do-over.."

"Are you just going to repeat everything I say or are you going to get the wine out?"

"Wine. Yeah I'll do that." Will smiled.

She shook her head. She'd so obviously surprised him. Damn Susan and her damn girl talks.

"Fortune cookies?" He asked, hopeful.

"Yep." She laughed.

"Really?"

"And apparently fate or whatever felt bad for last time 'cause we got an extra."

"Is an uneven number bad luck?" He teased.

"Nah. Just have to share." she teased back.

He laughed at that. "Sure."

She handed him his box of general tso's and flopped down on his couch. He followed, this time sitting next to her.

"Movie night?" he asked.

She pretended to think about it.

"Absolutely no chick flicks."

"Oh come on..."

"I'll leave." She shot him 'the look'.

Will sighed, giving her the side eye. Not that he was actually going to argue.

"No you won't, but okay fine. Then you pick."

She grinned at winning the argument.

Will had absolutely no idea what her idea of a do-over was, but the last time they'd had Chinese, he was pretty sure things had been changing between them, and in such a way that lead to a kiss in Prague they'd both wanted. Despite all the terrible things that had happened with Ollerman not everything those few days were bad, and he only hoped that this was a sign she was changing her mind about not being ready. If not, well that was okay too. He was just happy to have her here and getting back to their dinner nights. Those had become a weekly, or rather Bi-weekly, occurrence sometime between L.A. and Prague. So much so that she knew where his dishes were and what remote worked for what on his T.V. He'd missed it the weeks since they had been back but he was also a little surprised at how quickly she'd gotten back to this. And Will was grateful for it.

They both ate in comfortable silence, only breaking it for the bare minimum of conversation. When they'd finished their dinner, Will tossed her the remote, and Frankie handed him his cookie, fingers lingering on his just a bit longer than necessary. Both decided the third cookie was to be put away for the next time one was forgotten.


End file.
